Hold On
by Chikasumi Kurotsuki
Summary: No one knows what Clary's home life is really like and she doesn't dare tell anyone. But all of that changes when a new kid comes to school and isn't satisfied with the stories Clary tells everyone. Will this new boy be Clary's savior or will he just make her life continue to spiral out of control? (All human) Rated T at the moment.
1. Burned

Hold On

Clary looked at the clock anxiously as she shifted her weight again. 6:05. Valentine would be home in another five minutes or so. She had baked chicken in the oven and green beans on the stove, now if the rice would just set up everything would be done. With a sigh Clary filled another pot with water and put it on the stove.

The sound of the police car came up the drive way and Clary heard the door slam shut. Slightly alarmed Clary lifted up the lid to the rice and stirred it up, relief flooded through her as she saw that all the extra water was gone. Quickly grabbing pot holders, Clary opened the oven and got the chicken out and placed it on the stove just as the front door slammed shut.

The jingle of car keys being placed on their hook by the door was soon followed by her father's footsteps as he made his way to the kitchen. Clary turned to smile at her father as he walked through the door way and was secretly relieved when she saw his eyes weren't as dark as they usually were when he got home.

"What's for dinner tonight?" Valentine sank into his chair at the table.

"Baked chicken, green beans, and rice." Clary responded as she started putting food on her father's plate and brought it to him. It was simple, but it was one of her father's favorites.

"Good girl." Valentine said with a smile as he dug into his dinner. Clary continued to check the water on the stove that had yet to boil.

"Why don't you sit down, whatever is on the stove doesn't need your constant attention."

Turning down the stove she smiled and nodded and went to sit down across from her father. Her stomach growled a little but Clary ignored it, she would eat once her father was in the living room watching the tv.

"Done? Or would you like more?" Clary got up as she noticed her father's plate was empty.

"I'm done." With that her father got up and went to the fridge, grabbed a couple beers, and then made his way to the living room.

Clary could hear the television come on as she placed her father's dishes into the sink. Turning to the stove she cursed under her breath as she saw that the water was about to boil over. She turned the heat down even more and put in the noodles that were to be her father's lunch tomorrow. Looking at the chicken made her stomach growl and Clary put a little rice and green beans on her own plate. Once she was done eating she dished up all of the leftover food and put it into the fridge.

Clary heard her father laugh as she stirred the noodles on the stove and turned the burner back up a little. Turning around, Clary jumped as she saw her father standing in the doorway of the kitchen with a hard look on her face.

"Didn't you hear me calling, you?" Valentine's voice was gruff and just has hard as his eyes, which were on the verge of being a little blood shot.

"I'm sorry, I didn't." Clary gulped.

"Maybe you should clean your ears out that or listen better."

"Yes, sir." Clary said, hoping to appease him a little.

Valentine eyed the dishes and looked at her. "Why haven't you done the dishes yet?"

"I was waiting to get done with you lunch."

Her father's eyes flashed and Clary's heart sank a little. "Don't make excuses, girl." Before Clary knew it he was standing right by her and his hand slapped down across her face, _hard. _She took a step back but Valentine grabbed a handful of her shirt and pulled her closer to him just for him to shove her to the ground.

Clary took a breath in and look up at her father, forcing herself not to jump up and run to her room. She opened her mouth to say something, but quickly closed it when she saw her father's eyes were blazing in rage. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her father pick up the pot from the stove and before she could move she felt the intense heat come down on her legs.

A gasp slipped out of her mouth as her legs felt like they were being cooked. The sound of the pan hitting the floor caused Clary to look up at her father again and saw that the rage in his eyes had been replaced with shock. She saw her father swallow and take a step back as he looked down on her.

"Clary," her father's voice was weak and Clary knew that he was back to himself.

Not knowing what to say Clary just looked on as she saw her father run to put his shoes back on and grab the car keys before coming back to pick her up in his arms and go to his truck.

**This is just a little bit to my next story. I'm not going to do much with it until I'm done writing Love Story, but I've had this idea for a while and I couldn't wait any longer to start on it. **


	2. New Kids

Chapter 2

**Alright so I couldn't resist because this story is all I've been able to think about, so here's a little more **

Clary groaned as she heard the incessant beeping of her alarm clock go off. With a sigh Clary flung her blankets off of her and sat up. She sighed again as she turned off her alarm, stood up, and made her way to the bathroom that was adjoined to her room. After a warm shower Clary French braded her hair behind her back, there was little else she could do with her hair when she took a morning shower anyways.

Sitting on her bed Clary allowed everything that had happened the night before to come flooding to the surface of her mind.

"_You're lucky young lady that the burn isn't worse than it is." The doctor said as he looked up from his clip board. _

_ Clary gave a week smile that she hoped came across as sheepish. Her father had driven like a madman to the closest hospital even though Clary had managed to repeatedly tell him it was necessary. Once there a nurse had brought Clary to a back room and had Clary place her legs under a sink where she had sat for a good ten or fifteen minutes while cold water poured over her screaming skin. Then entire time asking taking Clary's vitals and asking her how she had received the burn. She was then brought to one of the check-up rooms and was asked the same questions as the doctor looked at her burned skin. He also gave her an ointment and some bandages _

_ "Next time please be more careful." The doctor said as he looked at her intently._

_ "I'll try, thank you." Clary said in a passive voice not liking the way his eyes seemed to searching hers. To Clary's relief he nodded and left to go to his next patient. _

_ Valentine didn't say anything until they were both inside and Clary was half way up the stairs to her room after making her father's lunch and doing the dishes. _

_ "Clary," her father's voice had called after her softly, causing her to stop and look back down at him. He was wringing his hands and had a troubled look on his face. Clary smiled down at him and walked back down the stairs. _

_ "It's alright, really." Clary hugged her dad and after seeing the troubled look ease a little went to her room._

With a sigh Clary looked at the angry red mark that was on the outside of her right calf muscle. Her right leg had gotten the worse of the water and the burn itself hadn't been as bad as she had first thought once the pain had gone away. Yes her skin was a little tender, but it wasn't too bad, she just wouldn't be able to wear skinny jeans for a little while. Tired of seeing the angry looking skin she grabbed the ointment and bandages off of her nightstand and dressed the wound as the doctor had told her to.

She then went to her closet and pulled on charcoal grey fitted V-neck, black lace layered skirt that sat at her waist with a white belt and came slightly below mid-thigh. Clary dug through her closet until she found her converse boots that came to her knees and put them on. Glancing at her clock Clary's eyes went wide and she grabbed her bag and went down stairs, pausing long enough only to grab her lunch and an apple to eat on the road. Locking the door behind her, Clary got into her silver Dodge Challenger with black racing stripes and sped off to school. The car had been one of her apology gifts from her father after he had had one of his rages. That's how things always went, Valentine would let his anger get the better of him, realize what he had done, and then give Clary something to make up for it. Over the past couple years Clary had been gifted with an iPod touch, an iPad, a Kindle Fire, a brand new lap top, her car, several new phones, shopping trips, and a couple vacations, along with a few other things. Clary knew it was her father's way of saying he was sorry, but she couldn't help but wish he would actually say those two words. Mostly because deep down inside Clary thought that once he actually did say it out loud then maybe, just maybe, her father wouldn't let his anger and grief get the better of him.

Once at school Clary found a parking spot and made her way into the school and to her locker. She had just enough time to switch out her homework for her books for her first two classes when the bell rang signaling the students to go to their first class of the day.

Clary slid into her desk and pulled out her history book and notebook. The late bell had just sounded when Mrs. Stark, the school's principal, stuck her head through the door. "Excuse me, Mr. Kent, could I please talk to you for a moment?"

Our teacher nodded and after raising his eyebrows at the class which initially meant 'I expect you to be on your best behavior', he followed the principal into the hall way. With a sigh Clary started to doodle at the top of her notes from yesterday.

"Class," the voice of the teacher caused Clary's hand to pause for a second before she quickly finished the last couple details to my drawing, "we have a new student today. I expect you to treat him with the utmost respect and help him to feel welcomed."

The door creaked open and Clary heard hushed tones from my classmates, curiosity getting the better of Clary she looked up and saw a tall black haired boy with startling blue eyes. He seemed a little embarrassed by the attention he was getting. After some prompting by our teacher her gave the class a shy smile and introduced himself as Alec Lightwood. Mr. Kent then directed him to an empty seat to her right.

Clary gave the new boy a smile as he sat down. "Hi, I'm Clary."

Alec looked at me and nodded with a small smile as Mr. Kent started going into the genius of the Ancient Egyptians when it came to architecture.

When the bell rang Clary asked Alec what his next class was and when he answered that it was physics she offered to show him the way since it was right across from her chemistry class. Alec paused for a second before nodding in compliance. When they separated Alec thanked her and Clary nodded as she walked into her next class and sat down by her friend Simon Lewis.

"Hey, Fray, what's happening?" Her friends asked as his pushed his glasses back up on his nose.

Clary shook her head at her friend but wasn't able to answer before the bell rang and their teacher started going over chemical bonds. They were about ten minutes into class when Mrs. Stark once again came into the room, this time with a boy in tow. Mr. Banner stopped writing a formula on the board as nodded at her to go on.

"This is Jace Lightwood. I expect you to welcome him as he is new to the school." Mrs. Stark said then turned to the chemistry teacher and nodded at him before leaving.

"Well, Mr. Lightwood," Mr. Banner told the golden haired boy, "please take the seat over there." He pointed to an empty spot close to the window and one row in front of Clary and Simon.

Clary couldn't help but stare at the golden boy as he walked to his assigned desk. Jace didn't look anything like Alec, whom Clary assumed had to be his brother seeing as Lightwood wasn't that common of a surname. Unlike his brother Jace had curly golden hair and golden eyes that seemed to dance. Even his skin was tanned and Clary couldn't _not_ notice the muscle that his tight black shirt hugged and showed off. Only the sound of her teacher continuing the lesson was enough to force Clary to look up at the board.

…

…

…

Clary closed sat down at the lunch table she always shared with her friends and pulled out the orange she had in her brown paper sack. She was so extremely glad that it was lunch time, she was starving and her morning classes had left her brain feeling like mush.

"So, Clary darling, have you seen the new kids?" Magnus questioned as he took a bite of out his sandwich.

"Yes, a blacked haired boy named Alec and a golden haired boy named Jace." She answered as she started to peel her orange.

"What do you think? That Jace boy is pretty attractive, but I'm a sucker for black hair and blue eyes." Magnus wagged his eyebrows at her and Clary couldn't help but laugh at her sparkly friend.

"Want me to introduce you two? Alec sits beside me in my first hour." Clary took a bite out of her orange as Simon sat down beside them.

"I think I'll manage, I want to nock that Lightwood boy off his feet," Magnus grinned.

"Alright, have it your way." Clary turned to Simon. "Hey, Si, did you get the rest of that last problem in Mrs. Richards's class?" Simon didn't respond as his eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open. Clary followed his line of sight along with Magnus and saw a tall black haired girl standing beside the two boys that had been part of her previous conversation.

"Simon, I do believe you are drooling." Magnus chuckled.

"Simon!" Clary pinched him when he still didn't respond.

"Ow! What was that for?" Simon exclaimed as he rubbed his arm.

"You were about to drowned us all with the amount of drool coming out of your mouth." Magnus teased.

Red started to spread across Simons face and neck and it took him a moment to get words out of his mouth. "I- I don't know what you mean."

"Yeah right, you were totally unclothing Isabelle Lightwood with your eyes right now." Magnus laughed.

"I- I was not!" Simon said disdainfully as he got even redder. "Besides, it's not like you weren't doing the same thing with her brothers."

"That's true, but it's to be expected of me."

Clary shook her head as her two friends continued to bicker back and forth. When she was done eating she excused herself and made her way to her locker just as the bell announced the end of lunch.

….

….

…..

Clary bit her lip to keep from crying out as yet another person kicked her in the leg. She loved soccer, she really did, but at the moment she was really starting to hate it. It almost seemed as if the people on the other team were kicking her in the right leg on purpose, even though Clary knew that wasn't the case. The real problem was the fact that any pressure on her burn made her leg feel like it was on fire all over again and if it hadn't been there she wouldn't have noticed rather or not she was being kicked.

She was relieved when Coach Wayne finally blew his whistle letting the students know to stop kicking the black and white ball around and to go and get changed for the last hour of the day. Clary jogged towards the gym with the other girls.

"Hey, Clary, wait up!" A voice called behind her. Clary stopped and waited until Isabelle Lightwood caught up to her.

"Hey." Coach had decided to pair the two of them up for warm ups and drills before they had started to play a game.

"You are really good at soccer." Isabelle said as they walked into the gym and headed towards the girls locker rooms.

"I'm mediocre at best, and I was kinda off my game today." Clary said lightly, she never really knew how to take praise when it came to sports. "But you were pretty good yourself."

Isabelle laughed a little, "Please, soccer is most definitely not my thing, but thank you. And if that was an off day I'd like to see you on a good day."

"Whatever," Clary smiled as she took her shoes off and grabbed her clothes and a towel as she headed to the shower to rinse off. Once behind the curtain to one of the three single showers she stripped out of her clothing let the warm water wash away the sweat from gym class. Quickly drying herself off she changed back into her regular clothes and made a mental note to stop by the bathroom to put more ointment on her burn. Throwing the towel into the clothes bin Clary but her gym clothes back into her bag and walked out of the gym with Isabelle as the bell rang.

After shoving her gym bag into her locker Clary grabbed her school bag and made her way to her art class as quickly as possible so she could ask Mrs. Barton if she could go to the restroom real quick. The art teacher nodded and Clary quickly made her way to the nearest bathroom. She could probably wait until she got home since it was only an hour but she had been putting it off and after the beating her poor leg had gotten after gym she didn't want to push it.

Clary had just turned the corner when she ran into someone and was on the floor, landing on her bad leg of course. Trying not to wince, she shifted so that she was sitting on her but.

"Crap, I'm sorry." The person she had run into said.

"Don't worry about it; I should have paid more attention." Clary waved off as she looked up. When she did she had to force herself to not gasp as she saw Isabelle's golden haired brother standing above her and offering her his hand. "Thank you," Clary said taking his hand as he helped her stand up.

"No problem." Jace said as he started to continue on his way.

Clary shook her head as she walked the last couple feet to where the door to the girls' bathroom was. After making sure no one was in the bathroom Clary took out fresh bandages and the ointment and took her boot off so she could redress her wound. She was just putting her boot back on when the door opened. Clary looked up and cursed under her breath as she quickly zipped the back of her boot up.

"Clary," Isabelle said as she gave Clary a quizzical look. Clary quickly threw away the old dressing and shoved the ointment back into her bag as she scolded herself.

"Isabelle," Clary said as she went to walk past her new friend, anxious to just get back to art class before she got in trouble. But before Clary could open the door Isabelle grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"What do you want?" Clary said lightly. "I really need to get back to class."

"What's wrong with your leg?"

"Nothing." Clary said and when the other girl didn't let her go she sighed. "I accidently burned myself okay?" Clary blushed, hoping it came across as being embarrassed and not the fact that she was ashamed.

Isabelle looked at Clary for a moment more before letting her go. "Alright," she shrugged.

Clary breathed a sigh of relief and quickly exited the bathroom before the girl changed her mind and wanted to ask more questions. Making a bee line to class, Clary sat down by Magnus and dropped her bag beneath her desk.

"Where have you been?" He asked as he continued to doodle in his sketchbook.

"Bathroom." Clary replied before she got out her own sketchbook from her bag.

Magnus didn't say anything else as he became absorbed in his artwork and Clary was secretly grateful. She wasn't in the mood to act carefree at the moment. She didn't know why, but Clary felt like she had just nearly dodged a bullet with Isabelle and she wasn't sure that is was over just yet.

**Sorry this chapter is kind of slow. I promise things will start to pick up. I'd also like to voice that I am sorry if I accidently slipped into the wrong person at some point in time. It should all be in 3****rd****, but I have the bad habit of accidently switching over to 1****st**** without meaning to. I think I caught all of my mistakes though. But I do hope you enjoyed it!**


	3. Almost Normal

Chapter 3

**I'm going to try to make my chapters longer but please just bear with me. So here is the next chapter hope you enjoy it! (Like I said earlier, I promise it will pick up)**

Clary sighed as she walked past the gym on her way out. She was going out of her way to get to her car, but she just couldn't help herself. Shaking her head she hurried past the double doors before she could dwell on the past even more.

"Clary," a voice called behind her and Clary stopped and turned around hesitantly.

"Hey, Aline." Clary forced a smile onto her face.

"Hey, why don't you watch practice? We all miss you." Aline said as she glanced back at the gym.

Clary's smile almost slipped off of her face. She really did miss cheering even though it really didn't fit her personality. Growing up Clary had always made fun of the cliché type of cheerleader and had only tried out on a dare, turned out it was actually fun and the girls were all really nice. It also turned out Clary was pretty good at it; she had been one of the very few freshmen who had made the squad when she had tried out. She hadn't been able to try out the last two years because of the way things were at home.

"Sorry, I have to get home." Clary said with a sigh as she looked longingly past her friend into the gym.

"Are you going to try out for next year? You really should. I'm sure we could find ways to make sure you didn't have to do too complicated tumbling passes. That way you wouldn't hurt your ankle." Aline's voice was eager. Even though she knew her friend meant well Clary couldn't help but feel bad as her stomach clenched a little at the lie. The excuse she had been using the last two years to not try out was that she had week ankles and if she landed wrong it could be disastrous, when really she just didn't have the time to take care of the house and cheer.

"I don't know." Clary's voice was hesitant.

"Well, are you at least coming to the game tomorrow?"

"Yes. I wouldn't miss it." Glad that her father loved sports and wouldn't miss a home game if his life depended on it.

"Good. Well I better get back to practice." Aline said as she jogged back into the gym. Clary stood there for a moment more before turning and continuing to the student parking lot. For a little bit Clary let herself hope that she could try out for her senior year but she quickly pushed the thought away. She wasn't about to get her hopes up on something she knew wouldn't happen.

Pulling up into her driveway, Clary was surprised to see her father's cop car already sitting in the drive. Furrowing her brows, she sat in her car for a second before grabbing her bag and quickly making her way up the steps to the front door of her house. Her hand hovered over the knob of the door for a couple seconds before she grabbed it and opened the door. The sound of the radio playing greeted Clary as she walked into the house. Closing the door, Clary saw that her father was sitting in his chair wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a book in his lap

"Hey, Clary." Valentine called as he marked his place in the book with his finger

"Dad." Clary smiled.

He must have seen the question in her eyes. "Today was slow so I got off early, besides there are a lot of newbies so they didn't really need me."

"Oh."

"Plus I thought you could go out to eat tonight. We haven't been out in a long time and this way you won't have to cook anything."

"That sounds great." Clary said happily. It had been a good three months since they had gone out to eat and Clary was excited at the idea of not having to cook.

"Well, go get cleaned up. I thought we could leave around 5:30 or so." Valentine said as he opened his book back up.

"Yes, sir." Clary stated as she bounded up the stairs to her room.

Tossing her book bag onto her bed, Clary proceeded to get ready to go out with her dad. She had changed out of her school clothes and put on a pale blue dress that had thick straps and came to her knees, it had been a gift from her father. Needing to something with her crazy mass of hair she curled it into more perfect ringlets and once satisfied put on just a touch of makeup. Clary glanced at the clock beside her bed and quickly changed the dressing on her calf. Opting, this time, for a couple pieces of non-stick gauze and just tapping the top and bottom to allow her wound to get some air. She then put on a pair of brown knee high boots and grabbed her phone and made her way back down stairs.

"All ready?" Clary found her father in his chair once more, only this time he had on black slacks and a light grey dress shirt.

"Yes."

"Then let's head out." Valentine stood up and shut off the football game he had been watching.

They took his truck to Riccardo's, Clary's favorite authentic Italian restaurant. Clary was so excited she couldn't help the smile that spread across her face as soon as her father pulled into the parking lot, a smile that was still on her face as they sat down at their table. Thankfully Valentine had called ahead and got reservations, otherwise they would still be standing in the doorway waiting for a table, even on a weekday the place was full.

Jocelyn, Clary's mother, had been the one to find Riccardo's and the first person she had ever been to the restaurant with. Her mother had brought her and her brother her several times for a dinner and Clary was secretly glad that her father had never gotten around to going with them or else it would probably be on the list of the places her father avoided to the best of his ability now days. This being part of the reason why she did the grocery shopping and not her father. It had been almost two years since she had been to the restaurant and it was just as amazing as she remembered it to be.

When it came time to order Clary steered clear of the more expensive entrees, even though her father had told her not to worry about the price, and went for something that was closer to the cheap side, as she usually did. She ended up ordering pasta with chicken in it as her father got something she couldn't even pronounce. Valentine and Clary kept up some conversation until the food came and Clary saw that her father had ordered some fish dish with seasoned vegetables. She sighed happily as she took a bite of her pasta and decided that she would save some for her lunch the next day. Once she was full she excused herself to go to the bathroom and when she got back she saw that her father had ordered them both gelatos. Clary wanted to squeal in pleasure like a little sever year old girl but she kept herself in check. Looking at her father she could tell that Valentines was suppressing a laugh because his eyes had a sparkle to them and he was having a hard time keeping a smile off of his face.

Clary didn't want the night to end. It was almost like the good ole days when she had a big happy family and she wasn't worried about when a normal day would turn into a bad day.

"Thank you." Clary exclaimed to her dad happily as the got back into his truck to head back home.

"You're welcome." Valentine smiled as he started the truck, backed up, and pulled out of the parking lot. "It was nice to go out for once; I didn't have to suffer eating your food."

"Ha ha, nice to know you appreciate me. Your just lucky I can cook otherwise we both would be starving." Clary joked back shaking her head.

"Don't worry, darling, your cooking isn't so bad. I mean it hasn't killed me yet."

"Dad!"

Valentine laughed a little. "You know I'm kidding. You're a great cook, but it is nice to get out once in a while and have something new."

Clary smiled even as her heart tightened a little. She hadn't realized how much she had missed this, being teased by her dad and bantering back and forth a little, just being silly. It was almost like normal, the old normal, not the new normal that she now so precariously lived in.

"Yeah. Hey, we are going to the game tomorrow night, right?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world." Valentine said as he smiled at her and then turned his attention back to the road.

"Good."

The rest of the ride was in comfortable silence and once inside the house Clary got together something for her father for lunch the next day and went upstairs. Once in her room Clary happily changed out of her dress and into sweat pants and an old t-shirt. She had enough skirts for one day. Clary didn't mind skirts and dresses, but she did most definitely prefer jeans and t-shirts. Since she didn't have any homework she read some until she was tired. With a happy sigh she turned off her reading lamp and rolled over. Today had been a good day. So good in fact that yesterday seemed like a distant memory.

…..

…..

…..

Clary was in Ancient History and she was having one of those days where her hand just couldn't keep still, resulting in three pages of notes fighting battling against doodles upon doodles.

"Clary."

"Hmm?" Clary looked up to see Alec looking at her. "Oh, sorry!"

"It's alright." Alec said with a small smile as she put her pencil down and sat on her hands to keep herself from picking the pencil back up. Mr. Kent had pared them up and they were supposed to be deciding on what two Egyptians god and or goddesses they want to do research over. She had, embarrassingly enough, accidently tuned out Alec as he was talking and let her artistic side take over her notes.

"I'm sorry," Clary apologized again. "Sometimes when I get the urge to draw I just shut everything else out."

"It really is alright." Alec laughed. "Besides, all I came up with was that we could each pick one deity and then we could do the research together."

"That sounds good. Do you have anyone in mind?" Clary brightened as she realized her partner wasn't irritated at her.

"I, well-" Alec almost seemed embarrassed. "Ma'at."

Clary couldn't help but notice he seem flustered but she didn't know why. "That's cool. I like her, I like Sekhmet."

Alec raised his eye brows at her as she smiled at him. "What?" Clary asked, glad that he no longer seemed flustered but curious of his reaction to her choice.

"Nothing, it's just most girls would probably pick Bastet or Isis, or even Ra, because they are easier and I quote, pretty." Alec used finger quotes around the word pretty.

"Really?" Clary said wishing she could arch a single eye brow but having to settle with a look that was a mix between you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me and do-I-look-like-that-kind-of-girl. It seemed to get the point across.

"Sorry." Alec had his hands up in mock surrender.

"Good, now that we are going against the grain and understand each other, how are we going about this project?" Clary couldn't help but smirk.

Alec smiled back and they spent the rest of the class time figuring out what they were going to do, who was going to do what, and what they wanted done by tomorrow. Thankfully they had all of the next week in class to work on the project but both of them wanted to get done sooner rather than the day of. When the bell rang Clary walked with Alec to their next classes, where they said goodbye.

Just as Clary turned to walk into Mr. Banner's class she bumped into someone and suddenly felt strong arms surround her waist before she could fall on her but. When they owner of the arm seemed satisfied she wasn't going to fall they let loose of her.

"Hey, I know I'm attractive, but I feel like if you keep throwing yourself at me every time we meet the other girls are gonna get jealous and start assuming things." Jace said smugly with a devilish grin on his face.

"In your dreams." Clary glared as she continued on to class not caring to come up with a more original comeback.

"Hey, that isn't any way to thank the guy who just saved you from falling on your butt." Jace said as he quickly caught up to Clary.

"Hmf," Clary ignored his presence as she made her way to her desk.

"I mean, you are the one who keeps running into me." Jace still had his lips twisted up into that smile of his that Clary was sure would make most other girls swoon in an instant.

Clary sighed and looked up at him as she realized he probably wasn't going to go to his seat anytime soon, or at least not until the late bell rang. "Only because you just happen to be right there, I'm sorry that I don't have the abilities of a ninja to sense your presence and move out of the way. Besides, if you ask me I'd say you were there on purpose."

Jace opened his mouth to respond but before he could say anything Mr. Banner walked out of his office and the bell rang a moment later, both of which sent Jace to his desk on the other side of the room.

**Sorry this is a terrible place to end a chapter but I just couldn't wait to post what little I had. But I hope the fact that Clary and Jace are slowly starting to build up a relationship makes up for it! Also for Alec and Clary's project in Mr. Kent's class, the goddess that Alec choice (Ma'at) is the goddess of truth, justice, and harmony which I thought kinda worked with him. Clary's choice was Sekhmet, the goddess of war. The reason Clary chose her is because Clary really is a fighter and she doesn't like to be perceived as weak. Another side note, for those of you who noticed so far, yes the teachers are members of the DC and Marvel comics. I couldn't decide on names for the teachers so I decided to bump my nerdom up a level and I was tickled pink by the fact that many of you noticed!**


	4. Extra Thoughts One

Chapter 3.5

**So I guess you could call this a half chapter, there go the .5. I'm going to add some of the chapters randomly throughout the story just so you can get an idea of what's going on with the other characters. Enjoy!**

Alec

Alec shifted his weight nervously. He hated introducing himself and he hated the idea of being the new kid. Not because he didn't like people or anything random like that, he just didn't like being the center of attention. Unlike his brother and sister who both thrived on it. Alec preferred to stick to the shadows and blend in; it was just easier that way. Currently, he was standing in the hall with the school's principal, Mrs. Stark, and his new teacher, Mr. Kent, who was listening diligently to the principal as she spoke to him. With a nod the man went back into his classroom and a moment later Mrs. Stark was urging me into the class room.

As Alec entered the room was filled with hushed murmurs, making him even more uncomfortable. After introducing himself to the class Mr. Kent directed him to a seat by a red headed girl. Relieved, Alec quickly went to his new seat and just and sat down.

"Hi, I'm Clary." Alec heard from his right. He turned toward the red headed girl, Clary, and smiled just as the teacher started in with the day's lesson over ancient Egypt.

"What is your next class?" Alec had just stood up and turned to see Clary waiting for him, with her bag on her shoulder.

"Physics." Alec responded, surprised that she had stayed behind, but at the same time grateful.

"That's right across the hall from my next class. Mr. Jordan, right?" Alec nodded at the friendly redhead. "Follow me then, I can show you the way."

Alec smiled and followed the girl as she started towards the hallway. When they got to his next class he was thankful she had led him, he had been to a big school before but he wasn't familiar at all with this schools layout.

"Here you are." Clary said as the stopped in front of the room.

"Thank you."

Clary nodded and walked across the hall to her class. With a sigh, Alec walked into his physics class and walked up to where the teacher was standing at his desk.

"Hello, I'm Alec Lightwood. I'm new here." The teacher looked up at him and smiled.

"Yes, I just received an email from Principal Stark. It's nice to have, please just wait here a moment until the others are all in class."

Alec nodded and a minute later the bell rang signaling that second period had started.

"Class." Mr. Jordan said and the whispering came to an immediate standstill. "We have a new student joining us today, Alec Lightwood." Alec tried not to fidget too much as, once again, all the eyes in the room were trained on him. He was glad he only had to go through this today. Still feeling uneasy, Alec noticed a pair of golden eyes staring at him. Glancing over to their owner, Alec saw that they belonged to a boy with spiky black hair that had purple streaks in it and what looked like glitter.

"You can sit by Magnus, Alec." Mr. Jordan said as he pointed at the sparkly boy that had caught Alec's attention. Alec didn't know if he was relieved or weary of the idea of sitting by the boy that was smirking at him, but he did as the teacher said and went to the empty chair beside him.

"Hello, cutie." Magnus said with a smirk and his eyes gleaming as Alec sat down beside him. At a loss for words Alec opened his mouth and then turned his attention to the front of the room. Cursing himself for the little bit of heat that made it to his cheeks, even more so when he heard the boy beside him chuckle in amusement.

Magnus

As Magnus walked into his physics class he couldn't help but notice the black haired boy that stood by Mr. Jordan's desk and he felt curiosity strike him as he took his seat. He was thankful when the bell rang and the boy turned to face the class, looking very self-conscious as he did. He heard Mr. Jordan introduce the new boy as Alec Lightwood, but anything his teacher might have said beyond that was lost to Magnus as he got a better look at the nervous looking boy.

He had black hair that looked really soft and his skin was very pale, setting off the black in his hair even more. Alec's clothes were somewhat hideous, but none of that was what really struck Magnus's attention. The one feature the Magnus couldn't seem to help stare at was the boy's face. It was gentle looking, but had strong bone structure. But what really caught his attention even more so that the blush in the boy's cheeks and the curve of his lips was the color of his eyes. They were the most intense blue Magnus had ever seen and they were completely captivating.

Magnus felt oddly pleased when the physics teacher motioned Alec to sit by Magnus.

"Hello, cutie." Magnus said with a smirk, taking advantage of the few seconds before his teacher jumped into class. Alec turned to look at him with startled blue eyes and opened his mouth but then closed it again. Red was slowly spreading across his face and he quickly turned his head to the front of the room. Magnus couldn't help but chuckle at how cute the unnerved boy was. Much to his pleasure, the cute black haired, blue eyed boy was also in his next two classes. Albeit not right next to him, but he would take what he could get.

Jace

Jace hadn't been able to find his next class, so in frustration he had made his way back to the office only to be escorted by Mrs. Stark all the way to chemistry. He sighed as he followed her into his class room. Looking around the class as the principal introduced him, his eyes landed on a redheaded girl sitting by a boy with glasses. He noticed that she looked at him in curiosity and her brows furrowed a little when the principal announced his name and he couldn't help but wonder why.

Even though Jace acted as though he was scanning the room his gaze kept going to the redhead. He noticed she had pale skin and a dew light freckles across her nose and cheeks. Her eyes were a captivating green color that made it even harder to look away from her. What intrigued Jace even more was that unlike all of the other girls who were staring at him lustfully and practically drooling she was merely just curious. It was almost as if she didn't find anything interesting about him at all besides his name.

Going to his seat by the window he couldn't help but feel her gaze following him. He almost felt disappointed when she turned her attention back to the teacher at the front of the room.

Jace was oddly delighted that he was in her precalculus class and at lunch he couldn't help but notice she was sitting with the boy with the glasses and a sparkly semi-Asian looking boy. He also couldn't help but notice that when she smiled it lit up her face. During gym class he finally found out her name was Clary when his sister, Isabelle, was paired up with her before they started to play a short game of soccer. Jace was surprised at how good she was at soccer but was disappointed that he never got the chance to talk to her.

Still disappointed that he hadn't been able to talk to the redheaded girl yet he didn't notice the footsteps coming towards him as he returned to his last class. Suddenly he felt a small body run into his and then heard a thud. Looking down he was surprised to see Clary, who almost seemed to grimace a little as she shifted her weight.

"Crap, I'm sorry." Jace said, slightly embarrassed and yet excited at the same time.

"Don't worry about it; I should have paid more attention." Clary said as she looked up at him as he offered her his hand. For a split second she seemed surprised to see him but her face was once again slightly embarrassed as he helped her up. "Thank you."

"No problem." Jace said as he started to walk away but then paused a moment when he heard her footsteps go down the hall. He looked back a moment to see her shaking her head even as she entered the girls bathroom. Not wanting to make his teacher mad the first day he was at school he quickly turned back around and headed back to class.

Even though he tried, Jace couldn't get Clary off his mind the entire class period and kept staring at his hand, which was still warm from hers. He couldn't have been happier to get out of that class when the bell finally rang; he wanted nothing more at the moment than to go for a run and try to figure out why he was so curious of the redhead. In fact, Jace was in such a rush to get to his car where he knew his siblings were waiting for him that he almost didn't notice Clary standing in front of the gym. It wasn't until a girl called her name that Jace stopped where he was and turned to look at them.

Jace heard Clary great the girl and couldn't help but think her smile seemed forced.

"Hey, why don't you watch practice? We all miss you." Clary's smile seemed to waver for a second but stayed in place at the girl's question.

"Sorry, I have to get home." Clary sighed as she looked past her friend. She almost seemed sad.

"Are you going to try out for next year? You really should. I'm sure we could find ways to make sure you didn't have to do too complicated tumbling passes. That way you wouldn't hurt your ankle." The eagerness in her friend's voice brought Clary's attention back to the girl in front of her.

This time the smile did slip some from Clary's face as she answered almost hesitantly, "I don't know."

"Well, are you at least coming to the game tomorrow?" The girl seemed oblivious of the fact that her questions seemed to be making Clary uncomfortable.

"Yes. I wouldn't miss it." Clary said, her smile coming back some, only more genuine this time.

This seemed to satisfy the girl as they said goodbye and she trotted back into the gym. Turning around, so that Jace could see her full face, Clary's smile quickly disappeared from her face and she almost seemed troubled as she continued on her way to the doors. Furrowing his brows a little, Jace waited until she was outside before continuing on his way. Jace was both confused and surprised. He was confused and couldn't help wonder why Clary seemed so depressed by the conversation she had had with her friend, but he was also surprised to find out that she had been a cheerleader. What little he had been able to find out about her she most definitely didn't seem like the pom pom type of girl. She was full of surprises and this made Jace even more curious about her.

Simon

Simon smiled as Clary walked into their chemistry class and sat down beside him. "Hey, Fray, what's happening?" He greeted her while pushing his stupid glasses back up his nose. Clary shook her head at him in amusement but didn't get the chance to respond before the bell rang, signaling Mr. Banner to jump into chemical formulas. A good ten minutes into class the principal came into class follow by a golden haired boy that almost seemed smug. Mr. Banner nodded at Mrs. Stark and she introduced the boy as Jace Lightwood.

Simon could tell the girls in class were drooling over the new boy without even looking at them. He turned to say something to Clary and stopped as he saw that she was also staring at the boy. Only unlike most of their classmates, she seemed more curious of him than anything. Simon didn't know why, but this made him a little irritated. He was even more irritated when Jace was also in their precalculus class, but Clary didn't seem to really notice this time and this made him feel a little better.

At lunch Simon found his friends and sat down beside Clary, but his attention was quickly drawn to the doorway of the cafeteria. He couldn't help but stare as his eyes focused on a tall girl with long black hair. She was standing beside a black haired boy who was obviously her brother and Jace.

"Ow! What was that for?" Simon exclaimed as he rubbed his arm and look at Clary.

"You were about to drowned us all with the amount of drool coming out of your mouth." Magnus teased.

Simon could feel his cheeks getting red but chose to ignore it. "I- I don't know what you mean." He said, trying to not sound as embarrassed at he was.

"Yeah right, you were totally unclothing Isabelle Lightwood with your eyes right now." Magnus's were dancing as he laughed.

"I- I was not!" Simon said disdainfully. A little irritate with his friend as he inwardly cursed himself for blushing even more. "Besides, it's not like you weren't doing the same thing with her brothers." He shot back.

"That's true, but it's to be expected of me." Magnus smiled a devilish grin as he shrugged.

The two boys continued to bicker about the Lightwoods and other things and Simon felt a little bad when the bell rang to find that Clary had left and he hadn't even noticed. With a sigh he got up, threw away his trash, and left for his next class.

Isabelle

Isabelle paused in the doorway, surprised, as she saw Clary putting her one of her boots back on. Clary looked up at her and Isabelle heard her say something she couldn't hear as Clary quickly zipped her boot back up, but not quick enough for Isabelle to not see the bandage on her calf.

"Clary." Isabelle said confused as she looked at her new friend, who had just thrown something into the trash and was stuffing a tube back into her bag.

"Isabelle," Clary said, picking up her bag and trying to walk past to get to the door. Isabelle quickly reached out and grabbed Clary's arm before she could open the door.

"What do you want?" Clary's voice was light, but Isabelle could hear the strain in it. "I really need to get back to class."

"What's wrong with your leg?" Isabelle asked her friend, curious.

"Nothing." Clary quickly responded and turned away from her, but when Isabelle didn't let go of her arm she continued with a sigh. "I accidently burned myself, okay?" Clary looked at her friend with a level look even as her face started to get flush. Isabelle couldn't decide if she was embarrassed or ashamed and Clary's voice hadn't given anything away.

"Alright." Isabelle said after a moment and shrugged. She let Clary go and the girl seemed to sigh a breath of relief as she quickly exited the bathroom. Isabelle continued to stare at where Clary had been standing and then turned back to stare at the sinks. She didn't know why, but she had a nagging feeling.

Her mind went back to the bandage on her leg and Isabelle thought back to gym and she suddenly remembered how Clary had seemed to almost flinch anytime someone kicked that leg or the ball brushed up against it. Isabelle had no doubt that it was her leg that had been the hindrance to Clary during gym. Furrowing her brows a little, she wondered how Clary had even burned herself to begin with, but when she heard the door open she shrugged her thought off and left to go back to class without even bothering to use the restroom.

**So there's that. I hope you enjoyed knowing the other character's thoughts. Please let me know if did or didn't like it. The next real chapter should be coming soon! **


	5. New Friends, Old Memories

Chapter 4

Clary was the first one to sit down at the table she and her friends always ate lunch at. She was surprised that she had beat the boys to the table, especially since she had stopped by the teacher's room just long enough to warm up her left over past from Riccardo's. She had just taken her first bite when Magnus smoothly slipped into a chair in front of her.

"Magnus." Clary greeted as she took another bite of her food, it wasn't as good as it had been last night but it was still delicious.

"Whatcha eating?" Magnus asked as he made a motion to snitch some of her pasta.

Clary quickly covered her bowl and with one hand and slapped Magnus's advance with the other. "It's pasta from Riccardo's and I am not sharing."

"Fine then," Magnus said in mock hurt. Clary stuck her tongue out at him.

"What are you to up to this time?" Simon said as he sat down and glanced at his two friends.

"Clary won't share her food." Magnus complained.

Simon raised an eyebrow at Clary who still had her arm covering her good.

"It's Riccardo's" Clary explained defensively.

Simon laughed a little and shook his head. "You should know better than to try to steal food from Riccardo's from Clary."

"Whatever." Magnus said waving his hand. "But since we are all here, I have something to tell you guys."

Clary looked at Simon who just shrugged; she then turned her gaze to Magnus. "Okay."

"I hope you don't mind but I invited Alec to eat lunch with us and by default the invite extended to his siblings as well."

Clary looked at Magnus for a second then shrugged, "Fine by me."

"Wait, who's Alec?" Simon asked confused.

"Isabelle and Jace's brother" Clary answered quickly. Magnus gave her a funny look. "Alec is in Mr. Kent's ancient history class with me and of course I have Isabelle and Jace in a few random classes." Clary took another bite of her pasta.

"Oh! Where are Maia and Jordan?" Clary was surprised that both of them were missing a second day. Maia was Clary and Simon's age and Jordan, or Kyle, was a year older like Magnus.

"Kyle has mono." Simon said with a sigh, no doubt bummed he couldn't go over to the other boy's house to play video games with him.

"Maia?" Clary asked. Magnus just shrugged.

"She got mono from Kyle." Simon said with a shrug.

Magnus laughed a little. "Of course he did."

"Of course who did what?" A familiar voice asked from behind Clary. She saw Magnus's face brighten a little as his eyes focused on the figure behind her.

Clary turned around and smiled. "Hey, Alec. Why don't you sit down?"

"Hey, Clary." Alec said as he smiled at her and then looked over at Simon and nodded.

"Come sit by me, darling." Magnus said with a sparkle in his eyes.

"Magnus," Alec said in a good natured sigh, but did as he was told.

"Where's the other two?" Magnus asked as he finally took a bite out of the sandwich he had brought for his lunch.

"They're coming." Alec started to search the cafeteria for his brother and sister. "There they are." He said when he found them as he waved his hand a little.

"You could have waited for us, Alec." Isabelle said in a huff as she sat down on the other side of Clary. Alec grumbled something but Isabelle ignored him as she turned to Clary and smiled. "Hey, Clary." "Hey." Clary said as she saw Jace take a seat across from her by his brother at the circle table. Clary saw Simon frown a little at the golden eyed boy and quickly turn his attention to the other two Lightwoods.

"Now that everyone is here. Why doesn't everyone introduce themselves so we all know each other's names?" Magnus said brightly. "I'm Magnus." He gave a pointed look at Alec who sighed.

"Alec."

"Jace." His voice sounded bored.

"Simon." He was looking at Isabelle.

"Clary." Clary said as she smiled, ignoring Jace.

"Isabelle."

"Great, now we all know each other!" Clary stared at Magnus; his chipperness was a little unsettling.

Thankfully everyone seemed to break off into their own conversations. Jace and Alec had their heads close together as they talked and occasionally Magnus would interrupt their conversation and talk to Alec just to go back to his conversation with Simon. Isabelle had turned to Clary and they started talking about Mrs. Kyle and her weird love of Edgar Allen Poe. Clary was just standing up to go to the bathroom when Isabelle touched her hand.

"Clary?" Isabelle bit her lip as if she was nervous about continuing. When Clary stayed where she was standing Isabelle took a breath before going on. "How did you get that burn?"

Isabelle's voice had been soft, too soft for even Simon to hear, but when Clary sat back down suddenly the boys all looked at her. Closing her eyes in frustration for a moment, she took a deep breath. She shouldn't have sat back down; she should have stayed strong, just like every other time people asked how she got a bruise or a cut or any of the number of wounds she'd had over the last few years.

Noticing the attention of the others, Isabelle gave Clary an embarrassed smile. "Never mind, you can tell me later."

"Tell you what?" Simon asked. He looked at Clary a little worriedly. Clary cursed herself again for slipping up. She looked at Magnus who frowned when she met his gaze, not being able to keep it she looked away to the two brothers and saw that they just looked curious.

"Oh, it's nothing." Isabelle gave Clary an apologizing look. Clary tried to smile at her new friend but she could barely force her lips to twist up.

Simon eyed Clary carefully. "What is it this time?" He finally asked.

Clary glanced as Magnus who kept glancing between Simon, Isabelle, and herself. The other two boys still just looked confused. _Great._ Clary thought as she sighed.

"It's nothing really." Clary said, forcing her voice to sound light. Her two friends didn't by it.

"Clary." Magnus said, his tone of voice saying he wanted to know and he wasn't going to not let her tell him.

"Fine." Clary said with a sigh, burying her head in her hands for a moment and then bringing her head back up and pushing the hair back out of her face. "I had another one of my klutzy moments Wednesday night and accidently spilled boiling water on my leg." Clary got the words out as quickly as she could.

"How did you manage that?" Magnus said after a few moments of silence.

"I don't know. I was taking a pan of noodles over to the sink to drain the water and I slipped and ended up spilling it all over when I fell." Clary lied. Again. When no one said anything she added. "It really isn't that bad. Dad rushed me to the hospital against my will and the doctor gave me some ointment to put on it. Said it should be healed up in a couple weeks."

"So that's why you were wearing the skirt." Magnus said as if suddenly the entire world made sense.

"Oh, please. It's not like I don't wear dresses and skirts." Clary argued.

"Yeah, but you had already worn a skirt Monday, and you never wear a skirt or dress more than every couple weeks. Unless it's a special occasion." Simon said. Clary wanted to hit both of them.

"Whatever. I'm leaving." Clary said as she stood up and left. Noticing that the entire time none of the Lightwoods had said a thing, but the entire time Jace had had his eyes one her.

The rest of the school day went by quickly and was fairly quiet. Isabelle kept giving Clary apologetic looks during world history and gym but never said anything about it. Not even Magnus brought it back up in art class. In fact, he didn't say anything at all to Clary, but she did catch him a few times giving her thoughtful looks. Clary didn't know if this was a good thing or bad thing, on both accounts, with Magnus but she didn't let it bother her.

Clary got just opened her car door when she heard he name called. Turning around she saw Isabelle jogging towards her.

"Hey," Isabelle said as she stopped in front of Clary. "I'm sorry about lunch."

Clary sighed a little. "It's fine." She knew Isabelle felt bad about it but she couldn't understand why she did feel so bad. In fact, it was starting to make Clary feel a little bad about all of it because she had had to lie, again, to her friends. Clary hated lying to her friends and that was the main reason she hadn't planned on telling any of her friends. In all honesty, Clary had been mad at Isabelle at first but as the afternoon progressed she couldn't help but feel bad for the girl. It wasn't Isabelle's fault that she didn't know how Simon and Magnus would react to her getting hurt, yet again, and then not telling them.

"Really." Clary added when Isabelle didn't look convinced. "Don't worry about it, Isabelle."

Isabelle still didn't look completely convinced, but she nodded her head and left to join her brothers. As Clary watcher her go to the car that Jace and Alec were standing by she couldn't help but feel like Jace was staring at her, even when she saw him laugh at something Alec had probably said. Shaking her head, Clary got into her Challenger and went home. Thanking that is was Friday and that meant it was guaranteed to be another good day at home.

…..

…..

…

Walking towards the stands with a burger and a pop in hand, Clary was glad that there was a tailgate going on until halftime because it meant that, once again, she hadn't had to worry about making dinner for her father and then hurrying to clean it up before they left to go to the game. Even better, when Valentine got home he was in an exceptionally good mood, even for a game night. Clary's eyes scanned the stands. She saw her father in the middle to her left with some of his friends. Then out of the corner of her eye she saw spikes and sparkles. Clary turned her head to her right and saw Magnus sitting close to the front of the stands with Simon and Isabelle. Smiling, Clary made her way towards her friends.

"Bout time you showed up." Magnus said as she sat down beside him. He had an easy going expression on his face and Clary felt relieved. Either he had forgotten about lunch or he had decided to not make a big deal of it. In the end Clary didn't care which it was as long as he was back to his normal self.

Clary glanced at her watch. "There's still a good thirty minutes before the game starts, so calm down. Besides, Dad got off work a little later than normal." This was another reason why Clary had been surprised at her father's good mood when he got home. Usually on Friday's he got off around 5:00 and today he hadn't gotten off until 5:30, on almost any other day he would have come home annoyed and wouldn't be in a very pleasant mood.

"Probably earning more money to pay off bills." A voice to Clary's right said. Turning to see who had sat down beside her she saw golden eyes looking at her playfully.

_Jace._

Clary managed to give him a hard look even though she felt startled by his comment. Behind her, Clary heard a smack and what sounded like Simon mumbling something.

"It doesn't really work like that." Clary said. When Jace raised his eyebrows at her she continued. "My Dad is a cop. Besides he got off work early yesterday and today he was only held up for an extra thirty minutes cleaning up someone else's mess." Another thing that Clary had been surprised about, Valentine loved his job but he most definitely didn't like it when people were too incompetent to do their job. The station had hired a lot of new rookies recently, meaning they were still learning and usually when her father had to fix someone else's mistake he wasn't too thrilled. Even before.

"I'm surprised he's not still irritated about that." Simon said as he glanced up at her father for a second. There had been a few times in grade school and middle school when Simon had been over and her father had come home angry and frustrated about the rookies. Clary's mother had always humored him and managed to calm him down.

Clary looked at her friend. "I think he had a good day at work today. He was in a good mood when he came home. But then again, that could just be because of the football game."

"So you dad's a cop?" Jace said, catching Clary's attention again. Looking at him his eyes almost seemed to be deep in thought, but she couldn't tell what he was thinking.

"Yep." Clary smiled. She had always been proud of that fact, proud of her dad.

"Hmm." Was Jace's response. Clary didn't know what to say to that so she just turned back to the field.

Clary could hear the others carrying on in conversation but she didn't really care to join. The thought of her mother had her thinking back to when her family hadn't been broken. Thinking of her mother also led Clary to think of her older brother, Jonathan. She missed them both dearly, her mother and her brother. As did her father. There were a lot of subjects Valentine was just now able to discuss again, like old summer vacations and birthdays. Though Clary always made sure to steer clear of those subjects unless he was the one to bring them up, and even then she treaded carefully. The sound of Jace's laughter just barely made it to Clary and she was almost startled to realize that in a lot of ways Jace was just like her brother. From what little she knew of Jace he was athletic, confident, sarcastic, and easy going. Just like Jonathan.

"Clary."

The voice startled Clary out of her thoughts and she snapped her head to look at Magnus. She heard the band finish playing the National Anthem. Clary didn't remember standing as she shook her head, ridding her of her thoughts, and tried to smile at her friend.

Magnus's eyes looked at her with what she thought was understanding. For a second Clary thought he was going to say something, but he just smiled at her and turned his attention back to the football field.

The football game seemed to fly by, no longer had it started had it came to an end with a home team victory. Everyone was walking past Clary and her group, who were standing off to the side, as they made their way to their own vehicles. Clary felt a little bad for not having taken part of her friends' conversations throughout the game but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't completely stop thinking about all the old days. She wanted nothing more at that moment than to go home and curl up in bed, partially because she was tired and partially because she didn't want to be a downer on the others' good mood.

"So what do you think, Clary? You in?" Isabelle asked, looking at her expectantly.

"Sorry, what?" Clary said confused.

"We just beat are arch rivals and you can't even keep your head out of the clouds for a moment?" Simon joked. Clary tried to smile as she just shrugged at him.

"We were just saying we were going to go to the bonfire that some of the football players are having." Isabelle explained, not seeming annoyed at all that Clary hadn't heard a word they had said. But then again, maybe they had expected it.

"I don't know." Clary said slowly. A part of her wanted to go and some fun after the long week she had had and another part of her didn't really feel like pretending she was as happy as the others. Plus she didn't think her father would let her go anyways and she didn't want to ask and ruin his good mood.

"Come one, Clary. It will be fun!" Isabelle was relentless.

"Plus we better get a move on if we want to get there before it gets too wild." Jace said. Clary noticed that the stream of people coming from the stands had lessoned.

"Too wild?" Alec looked at his brother with knowing look. "Since when does a party get too wild for you?"

"Hey, it's all fun and games until you start running around thinking you're a knight on a pink unicorn shouting stuff about how you are Alexander reincarnate." Jace's voice was perfectly serious, even as the others stared at him with varied expressions.

"That wasn't so bad, knocked you down a peg or two." Alec shrugged, repressing a smile.

Jace gave his brother a hurt look which Alec ignored. Isabelle sighed.

"You guys go on ahead. I'll talk to Clary and we'll catch up to you." Magnus said. The group all looked at each other but after Magnus insisted one more time they all took their leave.

"So, what's up with you?" Magnus asked once the other's had left.

"Nothing." Clary said, trying not to sound too defensive.

Magnus gave her a stern look. "Really." He obviously didn't believe her.

Clary sighed knowing she wouldn't be able to fool him. Simon was easy to full most of the time, Magnus not so much. "It's just been a rough week." Clary said finally with a shrug.

Magnus didn't seem to completely buy this because he crossed his arms and kept looking at her.

"It really isn't anything to worry about, Magnus. I'm just tired. Why don't you go join the others and go to the party?  
"Fine, have it your way." Magnus sighed. Clary gave him a weak smile as he followed after the others. Clary let the smile fall from her lips as she turned and made her way to her father's truck. When she got to where it had been parked had to force to not scream in frustration. She stared at the empty parking spot and sighed instead as she rolled her head back and closed her eyes. How could she forget? She had told her father that he could go home without her and she would catch a ride home with Simon, who was now on his way with the others to the bonfire. Looked like she would have to walk home.

Setting her shoulders, Clary started walking across the parking lot, still feeling stupid for not remembering she didn't have a ride home. She was just glad that she didn't live too far away, only about seven blocks. It could be worse; she could live on the other side of town. Ready to fall asleep on her feet, Clary trudged up the steps to her house and into her house. When she got to her room she barely managed to change out of her clothes before she collapsed onto her bed and fell asleep.

Just to be woken up by the slam of the front door and the sound of feet coming up the stairs. Clary's heart sank a little as she realized that she had been too tired to notice that her father's truck had been missing and there were empty beer cans littering the kitchen table.

**Here's another chapter. You guys are lucky I got a four day weekend because school was canceled because of the snow and ice. I'll try to post a couple more chapters this weekend, but once Monday gets here I won't be able to post as often since Softball is getting ready to start. **


	6. Good Time Gone Bad

Chapter 5

It was Monday and Clary was wearing sweats, again. All she had worn since Thursday, besides the football game, had been sweats and she missed her jeans. Clary sighed as Mr. Rogers continued to drone on about the Industrial Revolution. Not that she was really paying attention, her thought were still on her weekend for some reason, which she had spent mostly in her room. Saturday morning Clary had gotten up early and did what house-cleaning she had needed to do that included cleaning up her father's mess from the night before. When she had gotten done with that she had checked the fridge and saw that there were plenty of leftovers for her father when he woke up. Thankfully, she was done and back in her room before he did get up. Sunday had been about the same. What little bit Clary had been around her father those two days she had noticed that he had been more depressed and tired than actually irritated but she wasn't about to take her chances.

Clary had been relieved when she woke up this morning knowing that her father would go to work and she would go to school. Another reason Clary was happy about it being Monday was that she had a doctor's appointment she had to go to after this class that would take up all of gym and maybe some of art. The fact that she would miss some of her favorite class didn't thrill Clary but if the doctor said she could stop having to cover her burn it was worth it.

When the bell did finally ring Clary nearly shot out of her desk. She stopped by her locker and put her homework in her bag and then went to the office where she signed out with the promise of a doctor's note and went to the parking lot. It only took about ten minutes to get to the hospital and into one of the waiting rooms. Mercifully it was a slow day and Clary didn't have to wait more than fifteen minutes until a nurse came out and called her name.

"Well, let's have a look at that leg." The doctor said as he put on new plastic gloves.

Clary rolled up her pant leg and took off the gauze and tape that covered her wound. The doctor inspected it, which included touching the skin gently and asking several questions. Finally he rubbed some kind of lotion over it and said he would be right back. In no more than a minute he came back and touched Clary's leg gently one more time and then pulled off his gloves and threw them away.

"Well, Ms. Morgenstern, it seems you having been taking good care of that burn. I put a salve over it that will protect the new skin as it continues to heal. You shouldn't need to keep it covered anymore unless it seems irritated, in that case put some more of that ointment from before on it and cover it gently. But this should do the trick." The doctor said handing Clary a small tube of what looked like lotion. "It's basically the same thing that I put on you burn a moment ago, you need to apply it every morning and every night until it is completely healed. You will also need to let it sink in and dry before you can have clothing against it."

"So I can start wearing skinny jeans again?" Clary looked at the middle aged man, knowing it was a silly question but she just couldn't help herself.

"Yes, you can wear skinny jeans again," the doctor laughed. "Have a nice day Ms. Morgenstern."

"Thank you." Clary said as she jumped off the bed she had been sitting on and followed the doctor out the door.

"Oh, and next time please more careful." The doctor smiled as he continued down the hall.

Clary nodded even though he couldn't see it and made her way back to her Challenger with a much needed doctor's note in hand. When she did get back to school she sat in her car for a moment before getting out. She knew the doctor had meant well when he had told her to take care, but she couldn't help but feel irritated at his words. Clary could be as careful as she wanted and it wouldn't matter if her dad was having a bad day. Shaking the thoughts away Clary sighed and got out of her car. Why dwell on something you couldn't change?

The rest of the week went fairly well. Clary was able to wear her much loved skinny jeans again, heck she was just glad to wear real pants period, and gym they had switched over to pickle ball (basically like playing tennis with a whiffle ball and big ping pong paddles), which –thankfully- was a much less violent game than soccer but just as fun and intense. Even Valentine had been in a really good mood, they had been joking around all week and he hadn't picked up a beer once that Clary could tell.

Clary pulled out her PB&J and sat down beside Magnus, who was already having an intense conversation with Alec. Magnus said something to Alec that she couldn't hear but she saw Alec's cheeks turn red and his eyes go wide, it was all she could do to not laugh at the poor boy who Magnus had taken an interest in.

"Come on, Mag, why don't you leave Alec alone for once and keep poor ignored me company." Clary said and Alec gave her a grateful look as he tried to regain his composure.

"Don't worry about him, he can take it." Magnus eyed her. "Besides why are you so chipper all of sudden. Actually, you've been uncharacteristically happy all week."

Clary gave him a disdainful look. "You make it seem like I'm usually done terrible grumpy dragon spewing flames or something."

"I'm not saying that you aren't usually in a good mood, I'm just saying you've been in an even better mood than usual and it's lasted all week. I haven't seen you this happy in a long time."

"He's right." Simon said, picking up the end of Magnus's response as he sat down across from them. "You have been in a good mood."

Clary sighed. "It's just been a good week, that's all. I mean, I get to wear jeans again, thank goodness, and my dad has been in an excellent mood all week. And that almost never happens."

Simon looked at Magnus before both boys looked back at Clary. "Well, that's good."

"I guess I did see your dad the other day at a gas station, he did seem like he was in a good mood. At least, a better mood than he's been in for a while that is." Magnus added.

"Who are you talking about today?" Jace sat down by his brother with Isabelle close behind, along with Maia. Jordan Kyle was still at home, apparently his case of mono was worse than the one Maia had gotten. Clary had almost been surprised had fast the two girls had gotten to like each other. Especially considering they were nothing alike.

"How's Jordan?" Clary asked Maia as she sat down beside Simon before anyone had a chance to answer Jace's question. For some reason that boy had impeccable timing when it came to walking in on a conversation.

"He's feeling a little better and should be able to come back to school next week." Maia answered.

"Finally." Simon said. He really did miss his video game buddy because even though Clary was good at video games she was no Jordan and she wasn't able to go to his house that often.

"Don't worry, Simon, I'm sure he's up to video games by now." Maia laughed, thinking the same thing as Clary. "You should stop by after school and see him. It might make him feel better."

Simon started to protest but was quickly interrupted by Isabelle.

"Clary, are you going to the party tomorrow night?"

Clary stared at Isabelle, along with the others. Fighting the sigh that was about to come out of her mouth she smiled at Isabelle instead. She had heard of the party that some of the seniors were planning to throw but she hadn't paid it much attention because she hadn't planned on going. Frustrated, she should have known that Isabelle would want to go and would want to take her as well.

"I hadn't planned on it." Clary finally answered.

"Isabelle, Clary isn't much for parties. Plus her dad is a cop." Magnus said quickly.

"So? Why should it matter if her dad is a cop?" Jace was looking intently at Magnus before he shifted his gaze to Isabelle and Clary.

Simon and Magnus gave each other a look. Sometimes Clary felt as if he friends really did know the reason as of to why she was always saying no to things, especially when they gave each other _that_ look. But that was ridiculous because Clary had never told anyone, not even them, that she didn't dare do anything that might make her father mad because if she did she'd end up with yet another bruise. All that they knew, or at least thought they knew, was that her father had recently become stricter.

"It's just, Valentine is well… Valentine." Simon pushed in glasses back up his nose, making them even more crooked in the process.

"Plus he's just really strict." Magnus shrugged. Jace kept his gaze on Clary.

"But you could still ask, couldn't you? I mean, just tell him you want to go out with some friends." Clary gave Isabelle a doubtful look at what she had just suggested. She couldn't lie to her father.

"That won't work. Clary here is a terrible liar." Magus laughed.

_If only he knew._ It was true that when it came to her father and menial things she was indeed a terrible liar. The only thing she could ever get away with were her cover stories whenever a new bruise or wound showed up.

"It wouldn't really be lying. Just withhold some of the truth." Isabelle turned her attention back to Clary. "All you have say is you want to hang out with us, which is exactly what you'll be doing."

Clary sighed as she realized there was no winning this battle. "Fine. I'll ask. He's been in a really good mood all week anyways."

Isabelle brightened. "Great."

"So you father's name is _Valentine._" Jace said with a smirk. Clary just groaned.

…..

…..

…..

It was Friday night and Clary was sitting in Magnus's car with Simon as they drove to meet up with the Lightwoods, Maia was staying home with Jordan. Clary was still surprised that her father had actually said yes when she had asked if she could go out with her friends. Even more shocking was that he hadn't even thought about it or seemed irritated at her asking him such a thing. He had merely looked up at from his book and smiled and said yes before going back to his book.

Valentine hadn't even made it home yet before the others picked her up. Clary had left a note on the counter saying she had ordered pizza and that is was in the oven to keep warm. It had been the she could do when her friends decided they were going to meet up early before the party started at 8:00. It was 7:00 now and Clary had no idea what they were going to do for a full hour.

"And we are here!" Magnus exclaimed as he put his vehicle into park outside of a lot of old looking buildings.

"Magnus, where are we." Clary sighed as she noticed both of her friends getting out of the car and after a moment doing so as well.

"You'll see." Magnus called back as he started to walk towards the street. Clary looked at Simon, who just shrugged and looked away. They had walked about two blocks when Clary started to hear the bass of music. As they continued down the street the sound grew louder. Magnus suddenly turned and Clary saw where the sound of the music was coming from, along with the line of people waiting to get inside.

"Pandemonium?" Clary looked at her friend.

Magnus smiled. "Yep."

"But, Simon doesn't even like this place." Clary looked accusingly at her other friend. He didn't seem all that pleased, but he most definitely wasn't surprised.

"Calm down, Clary. Isabelle and I were talking and we thought it would be fun to kill some time here first and then go to the party later. Or just skip the party all together seeing as this place will most definitely be more fun."

Clary frowned at her friend. Yes, she had managed to sneak into Pandemonium once when she was a freshman with Magnus and she had loved it but she didn't like the feeling that was starting to spread throughout her stomach as she thought nervously about her father.

"Come on, Clary. You haven't had any fun since the funeral and that was nearly three years ago. It will be good for you. Plus you can make fun of Simon's sad attempts at dancing."

Clary couldn't not laugh at the idea of poor Simon trying to dance, she laughed even harder when she saw the look he was giving Magnus. "Fine. You're just lucky I dressed up for this, other words

I would make you take me home."

Clary was only partly kidding. The Pandemonium was a dance club for young adults and you wouldn't dare walk in there wearing jeans and a hoody unless you wanted to be stared at. Thankfully, Clary had decided to wear a black dress that hugged her skin and stopped about just above mid-thigh. She also had on her favorite pair of combat boots. The look was simple, but it still looked killer and went well with the club.

"You're just lucky I made sure Isabelle wasn't able to give you a make-over." Magnus said as they made their way into the club. Clary shivered at the idea.

Clary had thought the music was loud from outside, but it was nearly twice as loud inside. As she followed Magnus into the club she could feel the bass pulse in her bones. Finally the trio got to a corner of the club where there were several tables, once of which sat Alec and Isabelle. Magnus smiled mischievously as he slid in by Alec. Simon sat beside the sparkly, leather clad teen as Clary sat down beside Isabelle.

"Finally!" Isabelle exclaimed, thankfully it wasn't as loud here as it was out on the dance floor.

"Oh calm down, Izzy. You are lucky I got Clary in here to begin with." Magnus said with a smirk. "Besides, where is Mr. Sunshine?"

"Jace?" Alec said before Isabelle could retort. "I think he went to get drinks. He should be back anytime."

"And indeed he is." Jace said as he sat a tray down on the table and slid in beside Clary.

"How do you do that?" Simon asked. Clary was wondering the same thing.

"Do what?"

"Always magically pop up, especially after some the answer to a question or when it's about you."

Jace shrugged. "I'm just talented."

Simon just stared at Jace and turned his attention back to the others. Jace took the last two drinks off the tray and sat them down in front of himself and Clary. Clary eyed it suspiciously; she wasn't about to drink anything that had even a trace of alcohol in it.

"Don't worry, Red, it's a virgin cocktail. The club isn't serving anything with spirits in it tonight, sadly." Jace said with that stupid smirk still on his face.

"Whatever." Clary mumbled. She kept feeling even more on edge the longer she was in the club and she didn't really feel like dealing with Jace and his wonderful haughty self at the moment.

Jace gave her an almost puzzled look but just shrugged and turned his attention to the others who were laughing and seeming to be having a good time. Leave it to her to be the Debbie downer. _Whatever. I didn't even really want to come tonight anyways._

Clary didn't know how long she sat there with the others as she pretended to listen to their conversation. So she was surprised when she felt someone's hand on her shoulder and she saw that the others were all gone, probably dancing somewhere, and that only she Simon where left- granted he was a few feet away talking to some dark headed girl. Suppressing a sigh Clary looked up to see a dark haired boy with equally dark eyes.

"Sebastian." Clary said as she looked up at the boy wondering what he was doing.

"Clary." He said in an equally serious tone as she just had. But then he smiled at her and Clary couldn't help but smile back. "It doesn't look like you are having much fun."

Clary continued to look at the boy standing in front of her. She knew him well enough; he was a year older than her and had at one point been her brother's best friend. Sebastian had practically lived in their house. But it had been years since she had talked to him, which made since under the circumstances.

"I'm just tired, but I'm here with friends so…" Clary left the sentence hanging, not knowing what to say.

Sebastian sat down across from her, still smiling. "How have you been? It has been a while since we've talked."

Apparently he didn't mind her inability to finish a sentence. "As fine as I can be I suppose. What about you? I haven't seen you around school much."

Sebastian did one of those half laughs that seemed almost forced and had no humor in it at all. "Just busy with school and athletics, keeps me busy." He shrugged.

Suddenly Clary couldn't help but feel sorry for her brother's old friend, and with sorrow came a longing that things were different and that he was still here. Then maybe her life wouldn't be so crazy and Sebastian's eyes wouldn't be missing the mischievousness that only Jonathan seemed to be able to bring out.

Sebastian placed his hand over her in a comforting gesture. "It's been hard on all of us." His voice was kind and understanding. Clary smiled at him, a genuine smile. Sure it was more of a smile of feeling at ease than it was one of happiness, but it was smile none the less. For a moment it looked like Sebastian was about to say something but the sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted him.

Looking to her left, Clary saw Jace standing beside the table with his arms crossed and a strange expression on his face. Sebastian removed his hand from Clary's and leaned back against the wall. Clary hadn't even noticed that he had been leaning in towards her. Jace continued to just look at Sebastian with what almost seemed to be a glare. Sebastian almost looked amused as he looked at Jace and then turned his attention back to Clary.

"Guess that's my cue to leave. Good seeing you again, Clary." Sebastian got up and took a step. "Jace." He nodded and continued on his way.

Clary looked at Jace in confusion, not completely sure what had just happened. "What do you want?" She finally asked.

"Who was that?" Jace looked at her, ignoring her previous question.

"Sebastian. He's an old… friend."

Jace scowled for a moment but then focused on her again. "Oh. Well I just came over to ask if you wanted to dance."

Clary just stared at Jace. _He wanted to dance with _her. _Why?_

"I promise I don't bite." Jace offered her his hand. His eyes were lighter now. Clary looked at him for a moment more before giving of a sigh.

"Fine." Clary took his hand and nearly gasped. Shaking her head she let Jace pull her into the multitude of dancing bodies.

At first they didn't talk at all, they just danced. Then a slightly slower song came on and Clary felt Jace's hands settle on her hips. She took in a sharp breath that was even difficult for her to hear because of the volume of the music. Where Jace's hands touched her it felt like fire was licking at her skin. Not the kind that burns and harms the flesh, but the kind that warms you and makes you skin tingle. Clary didn't know why he body was reacting this way but she ignored it and looked up at Jace. She had to force herself to not roll her eyes as she saw the smirk on Jace's face, instead she gave what she hoped was a look of challenge and threw one of her arms around his neck. For a split second his eyes seemed to widen, but they were back to normal so fast that Clary wasn't completely sure she hadn't imagined it.

"Clary," Jace's voice was curious but it had a slight edge to it. "Why did Magus say 'this time' when he asked about you burn."

Clary could hardly hear him above the music and for a second she wasn't sure she had heard him right, but when he looked at her expectantly she just shrugged. "I'm kind of a klutz sometimes. They're use to me getting hurt."

Jace's eyes looked thoughtful as he seemed to ponder over her reply. "I've seen you in gym, you are anything but a klutz."

Clary barely suppressed the sigh that wanted to escape her lips, leave it to him of all people to notice the one flaw in her cover story. "It's more that I sometimes don't pay attention to what I'm doing than I'm klutzy. I don't know how many times I've run into the counter tops or a door at home or wasn't paying attention and tripped over something."

Jace continued to look at her with that thoughtful expression of his but eventually he shrugged his shoulders and dropped the subject. Relief instantly flooded through Clary at this. They danced to a couple more songs and even though Jace had stopped asking questions he still seemed to be thinking about something. Suddenly he looked at her and pulled her off to the side where the music wasn't nearly as loud and there weren't many people.

"Jace." Clary started but was immediately cut off by Jace's raised hand.

He continued to just look at her for a while and right when Clary was getting ready to walk away he spoke. "What did you mean when you said you dad was having a good week?"

"I just meant that work hadn't been much trouble." Clary responded quickly. Why was he asking her these questions? Why couldn't he just be like the rest of her friends and just take what she said and leave it at that?

"So he had bad weeks?"

"I suppose. Yes." Clary said, getting a little flustered.

"What are his bad weeks like?"

"He… They're… Why are you asking?"

Jace's eyes almost seemed to be searching hers as her expression hardened. She really wasn't liking the questions he kept asking.

"Curious. You just make it seem like he usually has a lot of bad days, whatever that means, and since I haven't known you as long as the others I'm just wasn't to know."

"Well it's none of your business." Clary yanked her arm away from Jace, who still had had been holding her from leading her away from the crowd.

"Why don't you ever talk about your mom? I've never even heard Simon or Magnus mention anyone but your dad and even then that's rare."

"Because they don't want to upset me." Clary said. _Much like you are right now._

Jace didn't seem to notice how agitated this conversation was making Clary and kept on talking. "Why would talking about you family upset you? Did your mom leave or something? Do you have any siblings? Because you don't act like an only child."

Clary's lungs seemed to be fighting Clary to get oxygen and her heart was pounding hard in her chest. She could feel the tears starting to well up in her eyes at the mention of her mom and brother. Why was Jace so perceptive? Why couldn't her be like the other, like his siblings even, and just take her word for what it was. Suddenly rage started to ebb its way through Clary and she had to clench her hands into fists to try to hide their shaking.

"Would you just drop it?" Clary said carefully, trying not to let the anger she felt seep into her voice.

"Drop what? I'm just curious." Jace still didn't seem to notice how his questions had affected her.

"Because I don't see how my life is any of your business. You don't see me asking Isabelle or Alec why you look nothing like them. Heck, I haven't asked you why you look nothing like them. It's as if you were adopted or something!" Clary said furious now, not caring that she had meant to keep her anger in check.

Jace's eyes hardened at her a little. "Well big deal! You know, most people who don't want people to know something are just hiding something."

"Really? Maybe you should listen to you own words!"

"Why are you so touchy? All I did was ask a few questions! What's there to get upset about?" Jace's voice started to rise.

"Oh yeah because an arrogant jerk nosing into my business wouldn't make me mad, sorry to disappoint!"

"What is your problem?" Jace yelled this time, his eyes blazing in furry. "What did mommy leave or something? Daddy to strict to let his perfect little angel sin? Have a sibling that ran off or turned off bad so now you have no life? Guess what, not my problem! I was just asking! I couldn't care less!"

Clary's blood was cold as it ran through her veins. Without really thinking about it she reached up and slapped Jace. "Screw you." She spit out as she took in the satisfaction of the red mark she had left on his face and the surprise in his eyes. Clary then turned on her heel and walked away from him. Her heart was still trying to pound its way out of her chest as she made it to an exit that led to an alley. Slipping outside Clary started to walk away, not caring where she was going.

She had just turned the corner when she heard footsteps running behind her and someone call her name. Too mad to care she just kept walking.

"Where are you going, Clary?" A hand placed itself on her shoulder, stopping her in her place.

"What are you doing here?" Clary sighed as Magnus turned her around to face him.

"I was dancing with Alec when I saw you storm out." Magnus eyes were kind as they looked at her and what was left of her anger dissipated and Clary was left feeling tired and numb.

"I'm sorry, Mags." Guilt panged through Clary as she realized she had probably just ruined a really good moment for her friend.

"Please, Alec will still be there when I get back. What's wrong with you?" He smiled at her, but it didn't really help any.

"It's nothing, really, I just needed to get out of there."

"And storming out and walking away on your own in the dark was the best way to do that." Magnus looked at her with amusement.

Clary shrugged.

"Come on, darling, let's get back inside. You can dance with me and Alec." Magnus winked at her as her through an arm around her shoulder and steered her back to the club.

Clary looked at her friend in alarm. Dancing with Magnus and Alec didn't seem like that good of an idea; just _watching_ them dance didn't seem like a good idea. Clary knew Magnus and she knew how flamboyant and forward her friend could be, especially when he like someone. Magnus looked at her burst into laughter.

"Don't worry, Clary, I'll tone it down for you. Unless you want to find Simon and go sit in the corner being rejects together." Magnus said still laughing.

Clary smirked a little. "I think I'd rather be a reject, but I will do one dance with you. That is, if Alec doesn't mind."

"Trust me, he won't mind in the least." Magnus smiled at her as he opened the door to the club.

"Magnus," Clary said before the entered the club. "Thank you."

Magnus gave her a soft smile and squeezed her shoulder a little. "No problem, Clary. It's what friends do." Clary smiled back.

"Now, let's go have some fun." Magnus said, his eyes dancing mischievously. Clary suppressed the groan that formed in her throat and followed her sparkly friend.

One dance with Magnus had turned into at least three or four and then Clary had finally excused herself and found Simon already sitting down at the table when she made her way back to it. They spent the rest of the night talking and watching the others have fun until finally the left. Exhausted, Clary fell asleep in Magnus's car as they drove to the Lightwood's house. Valentine had told Clary to be back by 3:00 and it was only 1:00, so she didn't see what it would hurt to spend at least an hour at her friends' house.

…..

…..

…..

Clary rolled over and groaned. Slowly, she opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. She was on a white leather couch in a large living room, the walls were a tan color, and there was a large plasma tv on the far wall. Clary saw the dark hair of Magnus on the floor beside what looked like Alec. On another couch was Isabelle and in a chair beside that was Jace. Clary heard a groan and looked down to see Simon sleeping on the ground beside her couch. Still bleary eyed Clary saw sunlight making its way through a window and let her gaze settled on a clock.

Panic shot through her and she sat strait up and rubbed her eyes and looked at the lock again and then looked at the window at the morning sun. Nine past seven. It was seven in the morning and she wasn't home. Looking around frantically she got up and found her phone and managed to make her way to the other side of the room without stepping on or tripping over one of the boys on the floor. Clary checked her phone and groaned a little, she had 20 texts, 15 missed calls, and 5 new voice mails. The panic went up an octave and Clary found her shoes and put them back on. Thinking hard Clary tried to remember how they had gotten to the Lightwoods house. She remembered driving past the high school, but it had been dark and Clary hadn't really been paying that much attention.

Clary's eyes turned to Magnus and a little bit of guilt made its way through the panic, but it didn't last long as she looked at the clock again.

"Magnus," Clary shook her friends shoulder trying to wake him up. "Magnus." She said again, her voice a little louder than the whisper she had used before. Clary shook her friend harder when he didn't wake up. Finally, Magnus groaned and turned over. Clary looked at the clock again. "Magnus, wake up right now." She said.

"Five more minutes." Magnus groaned as he tried to swat her away.

Heart pounding, Clary ran to the kitchen got a glass of cold water and ran back to the living room. "Magnus." Clary tried to shake her friend awake again. Nothing. "Fine." She said as she dumped the glass of water on Magnus's face.

"What the-" Magnus said as he bolted up into a sitting position. "What was that for?" He looked at her angrily.

"Magnus, you have to take me home." Clary said, when her friend made a move to lay back down she added, "It's seven in the morning, Magnus. Seven!"

Magnus turned back to her and looked like he was about to say something when finally her words sunk in and his eyes went wide. Magnus cursed and jumped up as he looked at the clock.

"Come on." He said as he grabbed his keys and headed for the door, not bothering to put his shoes or shirt back on.

When they got to her house thanked Magnus and jumped out of the car and ran to the door. She unlocked it with the spare key that was behind the porch light and went inside and closed the door quietly behind her. Everything was deadly quiet in the house as she took a tentative step towards the stairs. He father usually didn't get up until after ten on Saturday, so he should still be in bed. Clary had barely taken her second step when a booming voice came from the living room.

"Where do you think you've been?"

Clary snapped her head to look at her father. His face was red in anger and his eyes were hard. Her heart skipped a beat. She knew she shouldn't have gone.

**So, this is the longest chapter I've ever written so I hope you like it. I'm afraid things will start to slow down after today because of school and sports, but I will try my hardest to update on the weekends if I have time. Oh, and because I noticed that I've been forgetting this:**

**I DO NOT own any of these characters or the Mortal Instruments, Cassandra Clare does. **

**Also, the idea of the title came from the song Hold On by Good Charlotte because I heard the song and I thought it fit with this story perfectly. So, I also do not own the song Hold On, Good Charlotte does. That goes for all of my past chapters and future chapters of this story. **

**So, please leave a review if you so desire because it would be greatly appreciated! :D**


	7. Rough Weekend, Tough Monday

Chapter 6

Clary watched her father as he took a stop out of the living room and took an unconscious step back. "I'm sorry, I fell asleep while-" Clary didn't get to finish as her father's hand hit her face and cause her head to snap to the side. She had to bite her lip to keep from yelping, more in surprise than in pain; she known he would hit it but she still hadn't seen it coming.

Clary had just turn her head to look back at her father as he suddenly grabbed a fist full of Magnus's hoody that she had put on before getting out of his car. Valentine pulled her closer to him with her feet barely touching the ground. This close, Clary could smell the alcohol on his breath and see that his eyes were bloodshot and there was sweat forming on his brow; it made her stomach roll. Then, just as suddenly as she had been grabbed he threw her across the hall and her body hit the wall. Pain shot up through her hip and shoulder, which had taken the bruit force of the collision.

"You stupid, ungrateful child!" Valentine bellowed as Clary tried to sit up, ignoring the pain. "How dare you go out looking like a slut and try to lie!"

Clary opened her mouth to speak but suddenly she saw her father grab an empty beer bottle and fling it at her. There was a crash and then pieces of glass started to rain down as Clary ducked her head and covered her face with the hands. More bottles were thrown at the wall and Clary just sat there as broken glass continued to fall down on her. Then there was a loud crash right above her head and this time Clary could feel liquid spilling over her head and down her back. The entire time Clary was vaguely aware of her father yelling and cursing at her but each crash of glass seemed like an explosion going off and Clary couldn't hear a word he said.

After countless bottles everything became silent and Clary dared to look up hesitantly as her father who held the neck of a broken bottle in his hand as he glared down at her. Clary just sat where she was in the sea of glass as he father walked towards her. She had just barely pushed up the sleeves of Magnus's hoody when Valentine stopped in front of her, a murderous rage in his eyes, and grabbed her arm and yanked her up off the floor. Clary's heart was still beating fast in her chest as she tried to pull away from her father. She knew it was the wrong thing to do but his grip felt as if it would crush her bone, in the back of her mind Clary noted that there would be a bruise there in the morning. Valentine gripped her harder just to slam her against the other wall, causing the air to leave Clary's lungs.

Clary saw her father raise the hand that wasn't holding her and saw that he still held the broken bottle in it. What would have been a gasp had there been air in her lungs left Clary as she raise her other arm in time to block the blow from glass bottle. She felt the jagged glass cut into her arm and pain shout through her body once again. Her father's hold on her arm disappeared and she sank to the ground, her legs failing to hold up her body. Just as Clary hit the ground she felt her father's boot slam into her side. Clary curled up on herself trying to protect herself from the blows. Valentine's boot collided into her body a few more times and then stopped. Clary managed to get air into her lungs and was relieved that her father hadn't kicked her hard enough to break anything, only bruise.

Tentatively, she pushed herself up and looked at her father, his eyes had lost some of their edge and though he was breathing heavy he seemed to calm down. Without a word he turned around and walked out of the house. Clary leaned against the wall until her heart rate and breathing was back to normal. Forcing herself to get up, she let go of her cut arm and looked at it. It was still bleeding and nearly the full length of her forearm, but it wasn't bad enough to need stitches. Looking around Clary grabbed an old hand towel and tied it around the wound to help stop the bleeding. She then started cleaning up her father's mess. After she had swept up all the glass shards and vacuumed for any she had missed, Clary mopped the floor and made sure she got all of the blood up. That done, she threw away the bottles left intact and the random cans littering the house. Once she was satisfied that she had cleaned everything that needed to be cleaned, Clary forced her stiff and aching body up the stairs and into her room. She made a beeline to her bathroom and untied the hand towel from around her arm. The bleeding had stopped, thankfully.

After finding her peroxide and rubbing alcohol Clary bit her lip as she poured peroxide on her cut. After letting what germs there were boil out she rinsed off her arm and then repeated the process one more time. That done she poured some alcohol over the cut and grabbed the counter top of her sink as it burned. Content that the wound was now clean Clary stripped out of her clothes and got into the shower. The warm water felt amazing as it pelted down onto her sore muscles, washing away the blood and the grime with it. Clary didn't get out until the water was cold.

Looking at Magnus's hoody she sighed. If she couldn't get the blood out she wouldn't be able to give it back to him, it was lucky she had pushed her sleeves up in the first place. Clary dressed her new wound with some of the left over bandages from her burn and got dressed in sweats, a t-shirt, and a baddy hoody of her own. She then spent the rest of the morning in the laundry room as she washed her and her father's clothes, reading her book on the floor in between loads. Once that was done Clary made her way back upstairs and after putting away all the clean laundry she stayed in her room for the rest of the day. Thankfully, she had been able to get all of the blood out of Magnus's hoody. She really hadn't wanted to have to come up with a lie about why she couldn't give it back or keep acting like she forgot.

It wasn't until eight that night that Clary heard the front door slam shut and she was suddenly very grateful that on Saturday nights they usually had either leftovers night for supper or a tv dinner. When Clary woke up Sunday and went down stairs she noticed that her dad's truck was gone. At first Clary was relieved to not have to deal with him after what had happened the day before but as the day continued and her father still hadn't come home she began to wonder if it really was a blessing or not. Hoping to help make up for it, Clary put a roast in the crock pot along with potatoes, carrots, and celery. It was a rarity in her household and she could only wish that it might help her father's melancholy mood dissipate.

Valentine didn't pull into the drive until it was almost seven o'clock. Clary was careful to make sure she had on long sleeves and enough makeup to cover the bruise on her cheek. The front door opened right as Clary was finishing cutting up the roast. Clary's heart skipped when she saw Valentine tense up a little as he took off his shoes and put his coat, but she relaxed when he did.

"Mmm, that smells good." Valentines said with a smile. Clary couldn't help but smile at her father. It always amazed her how drastically different her father was when he was drunk compared to when he was sober. When her father had his wits about him he was a pleasant man with so much charisma that it seemed to seep of him in waves. His dark eyes lit up as he smiled and Clary noted that it looked like he had had his pale blonde hair trimmed since Thursday.

"I made a roast; I thought it would be nice since we hadn't had one for a while." Clary said, still smiling as her father grabbed a plate off the counter and started to fill his plate up.

"This is good." Valentine managed in between bites. Cautiously, Clary put some on a plate for herself and joined her father at the table.

"I'm glad you like it."

After her father had finished his plate and even gone back for seconds Clary managed to get the nerve up to attempt to ask her father something she was curious of and had been bothered by all weekend.

"Dad." Her voice was weak even to her own ears. Valentine looked up at her as he finished chewing his food.

"Yes," he said, looking at her with questioning eyes.

"How much troub… That is how… I was just wondering how much trouble I'm in for missing curfew." Clary finally said in a rush.

Valentine placed his fork down on the table and narrowed his eyes a little, not in the way he did when he was angry but when he was thinking about something.

"I mean, I know I'm probably grounded and I understand why. You gave me a privilege and I wasn't responsible enough to handle it and I really am sorry. I'd just like to know what my punishment is." Clary added quickly then more hesitantly. "If that is alright, sir."

Valentine continued to study her and just when Clary didn't think she was going to be able to handle it anymore he started to laugh. Clary had to fight hard to keep her face neutral and to not gawk at her father's reaction.

"Considering you are responsible to know you made a mistake and you are willing to own up to it I think that a week's grounding is far enough."

"Thank you." Clary said as she got up and started to clean up and do the dishes.

"So, for this entire week when you are done at school I want you to come straight home, understand? I will let you keep all of you other privileges, but I will be taking your keys." Valentine's voice was stern but not harsh.

"I understand." Clary nodded as her father got up and went into the living room. The sound of the tv drifted into the kitchen as Clary continued to wash the dishes.

When she was done she went upstairs to her room. A part of Clary knew she should probably be angry that she was being grounded after Saturday, but another part of her couldn't help but see the fairness. Clary knew that if her father didn't drink he wouldn't act the way he did, but there was no way to prevent him from drinking. Plus Clary knew that that was how he dealt with things. Yes it was unhealthy and yes he should find another way to cope but Clary couldn't help but defend her father, even when there were times she wish she didn't.

…..

…..

…..

Clary pulled down her sleeve again as she walked to her locker. She had had to walk to school and hadn't given herself enough time, so she had managed to get to her first class just as the late bell rang. Alec had given her a questioning look but thankfully Mr. Kent had jumped right into the lesson and didn't stop before the bell rang, meaning Alec didn't have the chance to talk to her. Clary felt a little bad when she rushed out of class but it didn't last long because she had to hurry so she could get to her locker and then to chem without being late.

Reaching her locker she quickly grabbed what she need for the rest of her morning classes and shut her locker.

"Clary."

Clary jumped at the sound of her name and nearly dropped her back pack, which she had been in the process of putting on her shoulder. Turning to see who had stopped her Clary didn't know rather to be relieved or not.

"Magnus," Clary said, repositioning her back pack. "What are you doing here?"

Magnus fell into step beside Clary as she headed to Mr. Banner's class. "I was just wondering how you were doing."

"You mean you want to know how much trouble I got in." Clary glanced over at Magnus who shrugged.

"Yes, that is what I mean."

"I'm grounded to the house for the entire week, which doesn't really mean much. That and my dad took my keys for the week as well."

Magnus let out a sigh. "That's not too bad. I'm glad you didn't get into more trouble and I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, Magnus." Clary said as she laid a hand on his shoulder. "I'm the one who should have told you to drop me off at home in the first place."

"Yeah right, like Isabelle would have let you." Magnus remarked.

Clary smiled at her friend. "Oh! I have your hoody in my locker; I'll give it to you at lunch."

"Thanks, doll." Magnus winked as he walked into his physics class.

Clary shook her head as she walked into chemistry. The minute she walked in she froze as she saw Mr. Banner finish writing the new seating chart on the board. She had to do a double take to make sure she had read the right name.

_You have got to be kidding me! _Clary screamed in her head. Suppressing the groan that was in her throat she made her way to her new seat and sat down. Not looking forward to the rest of the semester, Clary dropped her heads in her hands.

She heard a person to her right sit down beside her and Clary had to use every fiber of her being to not tense up. A moment later the bell rang and Clary knew she wouldn't be able to get away with having her head buried in her hands. Clary shouldn't have looked up, because when her eyes saw the board she saw that Mr. Banner had replaced the new seating chart with a lab.

_Kill me now._

After glaring at the marker board for a few more seconds Clary turned her head just enough to look at the blond headed boy beside her. It was almost as if he could feel her eyes on him because the moment her eyes settled on him those golden eyes met hers. Clary couldn't tell if he was having a similar reaction to this new arrangement as she was because his eyes weren't giving away anything.

"Clary."

"Jace."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, just looking at each other.

"About Friday," Jace said earning him a hard look from Clary. "I'm sorry for yelling at you."

Clary continued to just look at Jace for a while and took pleasure that she had him basically squirming in his seat. "I'm sorry for yelling as well." Jace seemed to be a little relieved by this. "But, I am not sorry for slapping you."

Jace gave her a puzzled look. He opened his mouth and then shut it again.

"You were a jerk. I may forgive you, for the most part, but I don't take back the slap. That you earned." Clary explained.

After a few more moments of silence Jace nodded. "Fair enough."

"Good, now let's get to work." Clary started flipping through the book to find the lab page she needed.

Clary put her book back in her bag when they had finished finding the equations and the amounts of everything they would need tomorrow. Once the tension between the two of them had been cleared up, for the most part, Jace and Clary had worked quickly and finished with a good ten minutes of class left.

"Clary."

"Yes," Clary said as she turned to look at Jace.

"Why did Magnus have to take you home Saturday?"

"What do you mean?" Clary asked confused by why he was asking.

"Well, when we all woke up you were gone and Magnus explained he had taken you home and I was just curious why you couldn't wait for the others to wake up." Jace shrugged.

"Oh, that." Clary laughed a little without any humor and Jace gave her a curious look. "I was supposed to be home by three. I woke up around seven and had Magnus take me home."

"Oh." Jace said then a moment later, "Did you get in trouble?"

"Yes I did. My dad was furious when I got home." Clary said matter-of-factly.

"Must have been an awkward weekend." Jace said, with a half smirk.

"Actually we didn't talk to each other all weekend until Sunday night." It wasn't necessarily a lie, she just didn't mention the part where her father had yelled at her and threw her around some.

"How did you manage that?" Jace furrowed his brow a little.

Thankfully the bell rang before Clary could answer.

"See you in precalc." Clary said as she grabbed her bag and headed to English.

Clary was oddly glad that Jace and her and cleared the air, but she wasn't entirely comfortable with all his inquiries. She didn't know why but she felt like she had to be more cautious when talking about her home life with him. Only two people knew the truth about what her life has been like for the past three years and she wasn't about to frag someone from the outside into her mess.

…..

…..

…..

It was lunch time and Clary didn't know for sure if she wanted to eat with her friends or not. Yes, she had told Magnus she would give him his hoody at lunch but she could do that in art. After making a trip to the bathroom to clean her cut and re-bandage it, she went to the cafeteria, tugged on her right sleeve self-consciously as she made her way to her friends. Sitting down with her lunch, which consisted of a banana and some pretzels, Clary handed Magnus his hoody.

"Thanks, love, you're the best." Magnus said as he took the article of clothing from Clary.

"I better be, I even washed it for you." Clary smiled. Magnus smelled his hoody and smiled.

"Indeed you did. You even got rid of the dust smell." Magnus continued to inspect his hoody.

"Don't worry; I didn't ruin it or anything."

"I'm just surprised you got the stains that were in it out." Magnus's voice was full of awe. Typical teenage boy.

Magnus kept studying his hoody and Clary was about to turn to the others when her eyes spotted a stain she had somehow managed to miss. It was on the right sleeve in the area where she had been cut. Clary wanted to kick herself for missing it. She had been so thorough, how could she have missed it! Her heart started to beat faster as Magnus's line of site drew closer to the stain, suddenly Magnus's eyes narrowed a little as he spotted the stain and tried to get a better look at it. Clary wanted to say something to draw his attention away from it, but she didn't know what. Not being able to take her eyes off him, Clary saw something like understanding or realization flash through his eyes for a second before he raised them to meet hers. Magnus opened his mouth to say something but something in Clary's face must have prevented him from saying anything because he closed him mouth and just gave her an odd look.

"Clary!"

"What?" Clary said, pulling her eyes off of Magnus and turning her attention to Simon.

"I asked how much trouble did you get in Saturday." Simon said giving her a lazy smile. "Was Valentine angry?"

"That has to be the understatement of the year, he wasn't just angry he was strait up irate when I got home. I'm surprised the whole neighborhood didn't hear him." Clary tried to joke, hoping it sounded easier going than she felt.

"You didn't tell me that." Magnus said, hoody forgotten.

"I figured it was implied; besides I already told you it wasn't your fault, if anything you helped it to not be even worse." Clary replied, trying to ease her friend. Magnus held a somewhat doubtful look but she didn't completely care, she was just glad he wasn't still looking at the blood stain.

"So how much trouble did you get in?" Simon again.

"I'm on house arrest and don't have a car for the entire week."

"How did you get to school?" Isabelle looked concerned. Clary suppressed a sigh, hopefully Isabelle wouldn't add herself to the list of people who thought they had to contribute to Clary's misfortune.

"I walked."

The others just looked at her.

"You walked. All the way from your house." Maia said looking at Jordan.

Clary shrugged. "It wasn't that bad."

"How far away does Clary live?" Isabelle asked.

"About thirteen blocks." Magnus answered. This was even enough for Clary to be rewarded with a look from Jace and Alec.

"It's not that bad." Clary repeated.

"Why didn't you call me, Clary? I could have picked you up." Simon almost looked hurt.

"I'm sorry, Si, I didn't think of it. If you want you can pick me up the rest of the week." That seemed to appease him because Simon simply nodded.

After that the conversation managed to get off Clary and onto a much safer subject. Clary attempted to add to the conversation but didn't try too hard because she was too preoccupied with glancing at Magnus every once in a while. Hopefully he forgot all about the stain and Clary wouldn't have to come up with a cover story. When there were only a few more minutes to lunch Clary got up and started to head towards the doors. Maia, Jordan, and Isabelle had already left, so Clary waited until Magnus seemed absorbed in his conversation with Alec just to be safe.

Clary was just outside the doors when she felt a hand catch her shoulder, it took all of her will power to not flinch away as pain shot through her arm from the bruise. Clary said as she turned to look to see who had grabbed her. Disappointment ebbed through her.

"Yes, Magnus."

Magnus gave her an almost careful look. "I just wanted to thank you one more time for getting the stains out of my hoody."

"No problem, Mags." Clary replied lightly with as much of a smile as she could muster at that moment. Magnus kept looking at her as if he expected her to continue.

Realizing she wasn't going to say anything else Magnus held up his hoody that Clary hadn't noticed he had been holding. "I was just wondering- Well, where did this stain come from?"

Magnus showed her the stain and looked at her with curious eyes. Clary wasn't sure what he was thinking, if it was good or bad for her, she only hoped it wasn't too close to the truth.

"I can't believe I missed a spot!" Clary said without missing a beat as she feigned giving the sleeve a better look. "Maybe it's from art or something."

Clary looked up and shrugged at Magnus, who was still watching her but had his eyes scrunched a little as if he was trying to remember if he had been in art class wearing the hoody.

"Maybe," Magnus said hesitantly, not entire sure of Clary's lie. Thankfully the bell rang before he could question her even more. Clary suddenly loved the timing of all her conversations today.

"Sorry, Mags, gotta get to class. See you in art!" Clary said before scampering off. When Clary got to her locker she breathed a sigh of relief.

_Only three more classes._ Clary reminded herself as she got her stuff for world history.

…..

…..

…..

Jace couldn't believe how relieved he was that Clary had accepted his apology. He also couldn't believe how surprised he'd been when she herself had apologized for Friday night but not the slap. It almost amused him that the slap was the one thing she wasn't sorry for. But talking to Clary during chemistry he couldn't help but feel like she wasn't telling him something when he asked about her weekend and about her dad. She had almost seemed as if she was trying to downplay her weekend, if that was even possible. Something just didn't set right with him after their conversation in Mr. Banner's class. Clary had seemed a little anxious as she talked and her eyes almost seemed to be analyzing his response. He couldn't help but wonder why.

At lunch Jace had decided to watch her more carefully. He caught sight of her before she even stepped into the lunch room and she seemed to almost hesitate before she continued to walk in and towards the table they were sitting at. Clary gave Magnus what looked like a hoody and smiled. The two talked for a little while and Jace was just about to turn away when he saw Clary almost stiffen as Magnus's hands came to a pause. Magnus looked up at her but Jace couldn't see his expression. For a split second Clary seemed to have a look of panic in her eyes but that was quickly replaced by a look that was supposed to seem neutral but almost had a since of urgency and pleading in them. Magnus didn't say anything this seemed to her.

A moment later Clary's attention was drawn to Simon who had been saying her name for the past couple minutes, seeming oblivious to her sudden tension. She seemed to almost relax at the distraction from Magnus until Simon asked how much trouble she had gotten in and I saw her pull at her sleeve a little. Her answer was light but her voice almost seemed strained, as if she was trying to come across as easy going. Jace couldn't help but feel like she was hiding something. Jace had to turn his attention to Alec for a while so he didn't catch the next couple seconds of the conversation. Then Isabelle's voice and Magnus and Simon's disapproval he turned to see what they were talking about now.

"How far away does Clary live?" Isabelle glanced between Clary's friends seeming confused.

"About thirteen blocks." Magnus said, his voice a little more than disapproving.

"It's not that bad." Clary said, seeming frustrated and wanting nothing more than for the conversation to be over. Jace gave her a curious look.

"Why didn't you call me, Clary? I could have picked you up." Simon said seeming hurt. Finally all the pieces clicked in Jace's mind. She had walked to school. Clary made apologized to Simon and suggested he pick her up for the rest of the week and that seemed to help. Then Jordan brought up something about a video game and Simon turned his attention to his other friend. Jace kept his eyes trained on Clary. She seemed too relieved at the end of the conversation.

Clary didn't participate much in the rest of the conversation and she even slipped away at one point. Magnus noticed and excused himself from Alec, who seemed almost disappointed. Jace watched Magnus go after Clary and catch up to her. When Clary turned around she had a smile on her face but even from where he sat Jace could tell that is was forced. Eventually the bell rang and she dashed off, leaving Magnus where he was standing as he waited for Alec.

In gym Clary was still wearing long sleeves. Jace heard Isabelle ask why she was wearing long sleeves and Clary responded with that it was chilly in the school. At one point when he was sitting by her in the bleachers in between pickle ball games he noticed there were little cuts on her hands and a small scratch on her forehead. Jace was about to ask about them when he was called to play a game against one of the newest winners. When he was done, with a victory for him, he back down on the bleachers. Throughout the rest of class and the rest of the day he saw her keeping pulling down her right sleeve. Curiosity and suspicion flowed through Jace.

Jace had a feeling that there was something Clary wasn't telling the others, that she had a secret that she wasn't willing to share, and he was set on finding out what it was.


	8. Extra Thoughts Two

Chapter 6.5

**So another half chapter with the other character's point of views, it goes back to the last Friday when they went to Pandemonium. I am really sorry that I haven't updated in while. School and softball are kicking my butt, but luckily for all of you spring break has started and that means I will be free to write many chapters! Anyways, hope you enjoy this little filler chapter. **

Alec

Alec hated dancing. The only reason he had come was because his sister had made him. Well, that and the fact that Magnus was going to be to be at Pandemonium as well. Alec didn't completely know why, but he was drawn to Magnus, like a moth to a flame, which seemed a very fitting metaphor seeing as Magnus was always covered in glitter and bright clothing while Alec was more comfortable in old sweaters.

He blushed a little as Magnus pulled him closer. Magnus had literally dragged him onto the dance floor after the others had started to make their way to join the swaying bodies, for being as slim as he was Magnus was surprisingly strong. Alec shivered as Magnus's hands skimmed across his back and down to his butt, causing him to blush even more. Magnus was so sure of himself, but not in a cocky way like Jace, that it startled Alec a little. The flamboyant boy was also pretty strait forward in everything he did and said to Alec, so much so that it sometimes took him off guard.

Even knowing all of this he still wasn't ready for when Magnus suddenly pulled Alec so close that every part of their bodies were touching the other's, or when Magnus suddenly brought his lips down on Alec's. At first Alec had frozen, but then he loosened up and kissed Magnus back. Alec fisted his hands into the fabric of Magnus's tight shirt as the kiss deepened. When they finally separated from each other Alec was sure if it had been seconds or hours that they had been kissing, and he was almost surprised to notice that they were both breathing hard. Heat made its way into his cheeks and Alec looked down, not being able to look Magnus in the eyes for some reason.

"Alec." Magnus said and Alec couldn't help but look up into the boy's yellow-green eyes. The eyes held a mischievous look within them but there was also happiness and this made Alec feel a little better. "I'm sorry if I was too forward."

Alec burst into laughter at the thought. "Really, _you,_ too _forward!"_ Alec managed to get out between laughs.

"What-" Alec pressed his lips to Magnus's quickly before Magnus could finish and looked at the surprised boy.

"Does that answer your question?"

"Yes, I think it does." Magnus smiled. They didn't talk anymore after that, they merely just danced. What was amazing, even more so than the fact that Magnus had kissed Alec and Alec had kissed him back, was the fact that Alec was actually enjoying himself.

He was enjoying himself so much in fact that when Magnus furrowed his brows and said he would be right back that Alec was slightly disappointed but agreed. About three songs later, which involved Alec dancing awkwardly by himself, Magnus returned with Clary in tow. Alec was surprised to see his red headed friend follow behind the sparkly boy. Clary danced with them for a while before she slipped away and made her way back towards the tables. Alec was secretly glad for this, another thing that surprised him, because this meant he wouldn't have to share Magnus's attention.

The danced the rest of the night until Izzy found them and told them they were getting ready to leave. Thankfully they were going back home, Alec didn't know if he could handle this new development with Magnus in public, especially considering he wasn't exactly out of the closet when it came to his sexuality. When they got back to the Lightwoods house Magnus and Alec sat on the floor of the television room and whispered amongst themselves instead of watching the movie until they fell asleep.

Much to Alec's pleasure, Magnus even made a presence in his dreams.

Magnus

Magnus smiled as he drove to the Lightwoods, thinking back to the club.

_He knew he was going out on a limb, but Magnus didn't care. Alec was quiet compared to his other siblings and he had no fashion sense, but he was still extremely attractive in his own way. His blue eyes were enough to undue Magnus and cause him to lose his train of thought. So when Alec's only response to his forwardness on the dance floor was his cheeks reddening Magnus felt relieved. But that wasn't what he the limb he would either stay securely on or plummet off of. With an almost nervous deep breath Magnus leaned down and met Alec's lips with his own. At first Alec's lips didn't respond and Magnus was getting ready to pull away when suddenly Alec started to kiss him back. _

_ Magnus didn't think he had ever felt more relieved in his life. The kiss deepened and Magnus reveled at how it sent tingles down his spine and through the rest of his body. When they pulled away they were both breathing heavy and Alec was blushing. Magnus was too happy to keep the smile off his face. But when Alec refused to look him in the eye, Magnus started to get a little concerned. It took three tries for him to say Alec's name loud enough for Alec to hear him. When he did, he looked up at Magnus, face still red. Magnus felt a little better but not much._

_ "I'm sorry if I was too forward." Magnus apologized. To Magnus's surprise Alec burst into laughter._

_ "Really, _you_, too _forward_." Magnus could barely hear the words between Alec's laughing and the loud music. _

_ Magnus started to question Alec but was quickly shut up with a quick peck on the lips, causing his worry to immediately dissipate. _

_ "Does that answer your question?" Alec smiled at him._

_ "Yes, I think it does." Magnus replies and they start dancing again. _

_ Suddenly out of the corner of his eye he sees a streak of fiery red hair storm off and disappear. Magnus had spotted Jace leading Clary on the dance floor earlier and he couldn't help but wonder what the idiot had said to upset Clary this time. For some reason the blond boy had this act to ask the wrong questions at the wrong time. Worried, Magnus told Alec he would be right back and made his way to where Clary had vanished. _

Magnus frowned a little as he thought back to how Clary's anger and gave way to an almost numb sadness, if that was even possible. It had taken a while to convince Clary to come back inside and dance with him, but eventually Magnus had been able to and led her inside. Magnus felt a little bad that Clary was having a bad night, which was all she seemed to have no matter how many times she plastered a smile on to her face. All he wanted was for his friend to have a good time, but that seemed to be easier wished than accomplished. But even though Magnus was worried he had been quickly distracted by Alec and his dancing skills once Clary left to join Simon.

As Magnus pulled behind the Alec in the driveway to his house he looked in the rear view mirror to see that Clary had fallen asleep. Magnus sighed. After getting out of his car he told Simon to go on inside and reached into the back seat and gently picked Clary up in his arms once she was unbuckled. Carrying her inside he couldn't help but notice how light she was, yes she has a small build but she still seemed to be very light. Magnus shrugged it off as he put Clary down on a couch and covered her up with a blanket that Isabelle had provided.

Turning around to find a place by Alec, Magnus saw Jace staring at Clary and Magnus made a mental note to have a talk to him. Ever since the accident three years ago Magnus had taken it upon himself to be a sort of big brother to Clary and protect her, Simon had as well but Magnus took the role a little more seriously. Not that Simon didn't, it was just that Simon was always quick to appease Clary and make sure he didn't upset her, while Magnus wasn't afraid to make Clary mad if needed because he knew she would forgive him once she had had the chance to cool off. Magnus was about to decide that he probably shouldn't wait to talk to Jace when Alec grabbed his hand and settled down on the floor in front of the television. Which was where he stayed until both him and Alec fell asleep.

Magnus could vaguely hear someone calling his name and shaking him, but he ignored it, not wanting to wake up from the dream he was having of him and Alec walking through Central Park.

"Magnus, wake up now." A familiar voice said, still shaking him.

"Five more minutes." Magnus said a little irritated. Why wouldn't they just go away? The voice didn't say anything and the shaking stopped. _Finally,_ Magnus thought, relieved.

"Magnus." The voice said again after a while. Magnus promptly ignored the voice.

"Fine." The voice grumbled and suddenly ice cold water was pouring down on him.

"What the-" Magnus said as he bolted up into a sitting position, away from the warm of Alec. Looking around for the culprit Magnus's eyes focused on Clary with an empty cup in her hand. "What was that for?"

"Magnus, you have to take me home." Clary said, not the least bit affected by the glare he was giving her. Magnus started to lay back down, he really just wanted to go back to sleep.

"It's seven in the morning, Magnus. Seven!" Clary exclaimed before he had hardly leaned back at all. Something about the urgency in her voice caused Magnus to stay sitting up and suddenly it hit him. There was sunshine coming in through the windows. It was seven, Clary was supposed to be home by three.

Suddenly Magnus's heart stuttered and he cursed under his breath as he jumped up. It was seven and Clary was supposed to have been home _four_ hours ago. Sure it wasn't too bad, but Valentine was strict _and _he was a cop.

"Come on," Magnus said as he found his keys and headed towards the front door, not caring in the least that he was barefoot and shirtless.

Magnus was pretty sure he was going at least twenty over the speed limit the entire time he was driving Clary back to her house. It was still cool and he had tossed his hoody at her to put on over her bare arms. He had barely put the care in park when Clary opened the door and jumped out of the car and ran to her front door. Magnus waited until she was inside before pulling away. Once the door shut behind her he backed out of her drive and headed back to the Lightwood's, an almost sick feeling forming in his stomach as he wondered how much trouble she would get in.

When he got back to the house he lay back down by Alec and went back to sleep, just to be woken up by Isabelle a couple hours later demanding to know where Clary was and having to explain that he had taken her home. The rest of the weekend he spent worrying about Clary. Magnus had seen Valentine mad before and it wasn't pretty, in fact it was pretty scary. Clary's father had such a demanding presence and was so well built that when he raised his voice and you knew he meant business you couldn't help but feel a little afraid of him, even if he was only a little irritated.

So when he got to school Monday he couldn't wait to talk to Clary to see how she was doing. He was relieved when he found her at her locker and walked with her to their next classes that she didn't seem to be upset about anything and was even trying to relieve him about not taking her home before going to the Lightwood's house. Lunch, however caused doubt to settle into Magnus's mind when he found a trace of blood on his hoody, blood he knew hadn't been there before. Clary's response didn't comfort him any either, but he eventually pushed it out of his mind once he realized Clary wasn't in the mood to talk about it just yet.

Magnus knew that Clary would talk about it when she was ready, that's just the way she was. But even with that knowledge, something about this situation didn't seem right to Magnus.

Jace

Jace didn't know why but seeing that dark headed guy from school talking to Clary made Jace's blood boil, or why when Clary put her hand over the boy's and smiled at him he wanted to tear the other boy's head off. Not caring to stop and pounder over his irrational rage, he walked over to the table and stopped in front of it. The dark headed guy looked as if he was about to say something, but Jace didn't give him the chance as he cleared his throat and made his presence known.

Both Clary and the boy turned to look at Jace. Clary looked almost surprised and curious at the same time. Focusing his glare on the dark head, Jace saw that the boy sat back and removed his hand from Clary's. He seemed almost amused and that made Jace even angrier.

"Guess that's my cue to leave. Good seeing you Clary." The boy said with a smirk as he smiled at Clary and stood up. He had barely taken a step when he stopped. "Jace." He said before continuing on his way. It bothered Jace a little that he didn't know the boy's name but said person knew his.

"What do you want?" Clary asked, drawing Jace's attention back to the redhead.

"Who was that?"

"Sebastian. He's and old… friend." She replied, pausing as she got to the end of her answer. Jace didn't know how to decipher that answer so he just let it go for what it was.

"Oh. Well I just came over to ask if you wanted to dance." Jace said with a slight smile. Clary just looked at him with surprise. "I promise I don't bite." Jace said when she didn't reply and extended his hand to her. Clary looked at him for a moment more.

"Fine." She sighed and Jace felt relief course through him as he realized he had thought she was about to say no. Clary placed her hand in his and he had to fight to not gasp as her touch sent electricity through his veins. With a smile he led her into the mob of clubbers and eventually stopped where the music wasn't so loud they couldn't hear each other if they wanted to say something to the other.

For the longest time they just danced. Jace didn't know if it had only been a few minutes or if it had been hours. All he did know was that he was captivated by Clary, even if he wasn't willing to admit it to himself. Not being able to help himself, Jace became more daring and placed his hands on Clary's slim hips as a slightly slower song came on. His skin started to tingle a little, he ignored it. Jace smirked as Clary tensed for a fraction of a second before looking up at him with a challenge in her eyes. Jace had to force himself to keep the arrogant expression on his face. Then suddenly Clary threw her arm around his neck and pulled herself a little closer to his body and Jace had to fight even harder to not respond to the heat that spread through him from where her skin touched his.

Once Jace thought he was in control and could ignore the enticing tingling feeling her touch cause, he took a deep breath and got the nerve to ask Clary what had been on his mind for the past week.

"Clary," Jace tried to cover up his nervousness with curiosity. "Why did Magnus say 'this time' when he asked about your burn?"

For a second Jace didn't think Clary was going to answer him, but then she said, "I'm kind of a klutz sometimes. They're use to me getting hurt." She shrugged as she said this, her voice calm.

Jace thought about her response for a bit before saying anything. He had seen Clary in gym, she wasn't a klutz, not in the least. In fact, he didn't think it was even possible for her to be a klutz, if you ignored the fact she didn't always pay attention to where she was going. Jace voiced his thoughts, all but the last of them. Clary seemed almost ruffled by his response but she was quick to respond.

"It's more that I sometimes don't pay attention to what I'm doing than I'm klutzy. I don't know how many times I've run into the counter tops or a door at home or wasn't paying attention and tripped over something." Clary's voice was still calm, but now Jace could hear something beneath the calm, something he couldn't name.

Jace thought about her response for a while. It did seem pretty true. Whenever Clary's head was in the clouds, which was frequent, she really wasn't aware of her surroundings. None of this explained why her friends had seemed too disgruntled upon learning of her injury, but Jace wasn't going to fight Clary on it. With a shrug of his shoulders he could almost she Clary visible relax a little and he had to force himself to remember what he had just decided, about not fighting Clary on it. But after dancing for a while more Jace just couldn't take it and he grabbed her and dragged her behind him as he fought his way through the throng of bodies to a space less crowded and loud.

"Jace." Clary said, but Jace silenced her with the raise of his hand as he just continued to stare at her, gaining his courage to forge onward.

"What did you mean when you said your dad was having a good week?" Jace had suspicion in his head or at least a bunch of tiny pieces that somehow fit together. Jace just wasn't sure how they fit together yet and for some reason he wanted nothing more than to figure out the puzzle that was Clary Morgenstern.

"I just meant that work hadn't been much trouble." Clary responded quickly, a little too quickly. Jace furrowed his eyes at the little red head.

"So he has bad weeks?"

"I suppose. Yes." Clary seemed flustered. Jace didn't know why, but he wanted to.

"What are his bad weeks like?" Jace pressed.

"He… They're… Why are you asking?" Clary had trouble getting her words out, as if she wasn't sure how to respond. She shifted a little uncomfortably on her feet.

"Curious. You just make it seem like he usually has a lot of bad days, whatever that means, and since I haven't known you as long as the others I'm just wasn't to know."

Clary suddenly yanked her arm from Jace's grasp; he hadn't even noticed that he was still holding her. "Well it's none of your business." She said, anger seeping into her voice a little.

"Why don't you ever talk about your mom? I've never even heard Simon or Magnus mention anyone but your dad and even then that's rare." Jace didn't know why he had asked this, but it was out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

"Because they don't want to upset me." Clary responded. Her voice was a little hard now, but that didn't stop him.

"Why would talking about you family upset you? Did your mom leave or something? Do you have any siblings? Because you don't act like an only child." He didn't know where the questions were even coming from or why he couldn't seem to stop his mouth from spouting them off before he could even think about what he was doing.

"Would you just drop it?" Clary asked, her voice was a little strained but Jace barely noticed.

"Drop what? I'm just curious."

"Because I don't see how my life is any of your business. You don't see me asking Isabelle or Alec why you look nothing like them. Heck, I haven't asked you why you look nothing like them. It's as if you were adopted or something!"

Clary's words hit him like a wall and suddenly, for no reason what so ever, Jace felt anger start to fester inside of him. . "Well big deal! You know, most people who don't want people to know something are just hiding something."

"Really? Maybe you should listen to you own words!"

"Why are you so touchy? All I did was ask a few questions! What's there to get upset about?" Jace was aware that his voice was starting to rise but he didn't care.

"Oh yeah because an arrogant jerk nosing into my business wouldn't make me mad, sorry to disappoint!"

"What is your problem? What did mommy leave or something? Daddy too strict to let his perfect little angel sin? Have a sibling that ran off or turned off bad so now you have no life? Guess what, not my problem! I was just asking! I couldn't care less!" Jace yelled. Not caring in the least that he had just contradicted what he had just said a moment ago. He was too angry to care. For a second Jace was satisfied as he saw Clary pale at his words, until he felt his cheek sting as she slapped him across the face.

"Screw you." Clary spit out before she turned on her heals and walked away. Jace suddenly felt sick. He hadn't meant to get mad at Clary, she had just struck a nerve and he let his anger get the best of him. Again.

Jace started to call out her name to apologize but Clary had already disappeared into the cloud. He didn't see her again until he was dancing with some blond when Isabelle found him and told him they were leaving. Following her back to the table, he saw that Clary was sitting with Simon at the table they had been sitting at earlier. He quickly averted his eyes. Jace knew he should apologize, but he didn't want to do it in front of the others. Magnus was already giving him a weird look.

Jace tuned out Isabelle as she berated Alec with a bunch of questioned involving Magnus. The second the car was parked in the driveway Jace got out of the car and went inside. He was just entering the living room again as he saw Magnus carrying a sleeping Clary and lay her down on one of the couches. For some unexplainable reason Jace felt a pang of jealousy. Which was ridiculous. There was no reason to be jealous because Magnus wasn't interested in Clary like that. Jace stopped in his tracts as the fact that he was jealous and Clary was the cause of said emotion sunk in. What was wrong with him?

The next morning Jace was woken up by Isabelle questioning Magnus.

"What do you mean you took Clary home?"

"For the fourth time, Isabelle, exactly what I said." Magnus said sounding a little exasperated.

"Magnus." Isabelle said a little shrilly.

"She needed to go home. She was supposed to be home at three and she woke me up at seven. You do the math."

Jace sat up at the sound in Magnus's voice. He sounded a little tense and worked up.

"So?"

Magnus gave Simon a look and the strange feeling that something was going on with Clary came slinking back.

"Izzy, just give it a rest." Alec said with a yawn. "Clary's dad is a cop right? She'll probably be in big trouble for being out after curfew."

Isabelle looked like she was about to say something but the three boys all gave her a hard look and she dropped the subject. Jace's stomach tightened a little.

**Once again I am so incredible sorry this took so long to post. I had it almost all typed out last week and I just never had the chance to finish the last little bit. I promise more will be coming soon!**


	9. Suspicion Runs Deep

Chapter 7

**So here is the next real chapter! With it being spring break I'm hoping I will be able to write several chapters over the week. After that I don't know how often I will be able to update because we are writing a paper in English and it is half of our grade and my teacher means business. So please don't hate me. I will try my best to find time to update after spring break is over. **

The rest of Clary's Monday was quiet. When she got to art Magnus didn't bring up his hoody and when her father got home from work he merely ate his dinner and sat down in front of the television without a word to Clary. Clary didn't know if the fact that her father was so calm was a good thing or not, but she didn't spend too much time worrying about it as she cleaned the kitchen and went up to her room for the rest of the night. Tuesday morning, true to his word, Simon picked Clary up and took her to school.

Clary was currently cleaning up the lab that had been their assignment that day in Chemistry. She could feel Jace's eyes on her.

"What." Clary demanded more than asked. She was frustrated. Jace had been looking at her off and on throughout the entire class time and there were a few times when he looked like he was going to say something just to close his mouth and say nothing at all.

Jace looked at for a second before, looking almost as if he was trying to muster up all his strength to verbalize whatever it was that had been plaguing his mind the entire hour.

"Clary," Jace finally said but then paused. He looked like he was changing his mind.

"Go on." Clary demanded. He wasn't about to weasel his way out of this now, not when he was testing her patience.

"It's just that… I was just wondering…"

"Spit it out."

"Why are Simon and Magnus so protective of you?" Jace finally rushed out. His voice was almost cautious and Clary could tell by the look on his face that he wasn't trying to goad her, he truly was just curious.

Clary sighed and some of her irritation dissipated. "They just are. For some reason they have decided, mostly Magnus, to assign themselves the roles of protective brothers." This time is wasn't a lie. Magnus and Simon truly had decided to fill in as her brothers three years ago. It was also true that Magnus had taken his role of older brother a lot more serious. Sometimes a little too serious in Clary's opinion, Magnus was always quick to pick up on subtle clues that something was wrong with Clary. She was just glad that he hadn't learned to see past her lies yet, though she wasn't sure how much longer she would have that luxury. Then there was Simon, it wasn't that he didn't take his new 'job' seriously, he just wasn't as adamant about it as Magnus was. But Simon was more laid back than Magnus and, sadly, easier to full. Which kind of surprised Clary since Simon had known her longer than Magnus.

"Oh." Jace said, furrowing his brows a little. He almost seemed disappointed, though Clary couldn't imagine why. Silence spread among them for a few seconds before Jace spoke again. "I really am sorry about what I said last Friday."

Clary frowned a little at him. She didn't know rather or not to be wary of where this was going or not. "I already told you I forgave you." She voiced carefully.

"I know. But I just wanted to say it again. I don't really know anything about you or your family and I didn't have the right to act like I did." Jace said. Clary was about to say something but then he continued before she could even open her mouth. "That's why I want to get to know you better."

"What?" Clary said, taken aback.

"Well, Alec and Magnus seem to be hitting it off and you are already good friends with both of my siblings. It only seems natural that we should get to know each other better as well."

Clary didn't know what to say for a while. Jace could be a jerk and somewhat of a narcissist at times, but he was still nice. That and Clary couldn't help but think there was more to him that met the eye.

"Okay," she said a bit hesitantly. Jace smiled and then his eyes turned thoughtful again and Clary felt like she was going to regret telling Jace she was okay with them being friends.

"What about your dad?"

"What do you mean?" Clary's heart skipped a beat but she her voice stayed steady.

"I mean. I know he's a cop and he's apparently kind of strict. But what is he like?"

Clary fiddled with her sleeve a little. "He's hardworking and well respected."

"Seems like it." Jace says, almost sarcastically. Clary gave him a hard look. "It's just that your friends seem to almost be afraid of him."

Clary felt a cold chill run through her. She knew her friends weren't scared of her dad, but they did know he was a force to be reckoned with. "I don't know what you mean."

"I mean, whenever your friends talk about him or ask you about him they seem almost cautious. It's weird."

Clary didn't know why but she was getting mad. But beneath the anger was fear, fear that Jace was too clever and curious for his own good. "That's ridiculous."

"Really? Because I don't think so. No one ever talks about your family and the only person they do talk about is you father and even then that's rare. What's up with that?"

"There's nothing up with it." Clary didn't bother keeping the defensiveness out of her voice.

"I think you are hiding something." Jace said. Clary's heart sank a little and her stomach did a sick flip. "I know it, your friends know it. There is something you aren't telling people."

Thankfully the bell rang and Clary didn't have to respond, because in all honesty she didn't even know how to respond to that. So she grabbed her stuff and bolted out of the class room. She could hear Jace calling her name behind her but she ignored him and kept walking.

…

…

…

Jace hadn't talked to Clary since she stormed out of Chemistry. He felt like an idiot. Right when he was making progress with Clary and she had agreed to try to be friends with him he goes and ruins it. Jace knew he was pushing her and he knew she was starting to get angry, he just didn't know _why_.

Jace was making his way to the bleachers when he looked up and stopped. Sebastian was sitting beside Clary. They were smiling and laughing and this caused Jace's blood to boil a little. He made his way a little closer and stopped when he saw that Isabelle was walking towards them.

"Hey, Clary, who's the cutie?" Isabelle asked as she stopped in front of them.

"This is Sebastian. He is my br-" Clary suddenly stopped.

"We grew up together. We were childhood friends." Sebastian jumped in. Clary smiled at him gratefully. Jace felt his rage build even more. But along with it came curiosity. _What had Clary_ _been about to say?_ Jace put his attention back to his sister, who didn't seem to notice Clary's reaction at all.

"So, Sebastian, how long have you known Clary?" Isabelle asked as she sat down on the other side of him.

Sebastian smiled. Jace had the sudden urge to punch him. "I think I've known her since I was six, thought we haven't talked much the last few years."

"Why's that?"

Clary stiffened a little but Sebastian didn't hesitate. "We drifted in different directions is all, which is a little too easy to do when you are a year older than someone."

Isabelle started to ask another question but Sebastian was called down to play a match of pickle ball. Jace was about to join the two girls when he was also called to play another game. He sighed in frustration and quickly gained another victory. Sebastian was still playing his opponent, so Jace went up the bleachers and sat by Clary. Isabelle was missing.

"Hey." He said a bit hesitantly.

Clary turned her head to look at him a little and then look back in front of her. "What do you want?"

"I'm sorry if I said something to upset you earlier. Again." Jace said. He really was getting tired of apologizing; he really wasn't use to it. That made him seem like a real jerk, but it was true.

Clary sighed. "It's fine."

Jace nodded and then took a plunge, even though a voice in the back of his head said that this conversation was going to end badly as well. "So, how do you know Sebastian?"

"What?" Clary asked, a little confused.

"Well, you said he was a friend, but until recently I haven't noticed you talking to him and he's never ate lunch with us."

"Oh. He has he own set of friends. Besides, we haven't really talked since he started high school." Clary said.

"Why's that?"

Clary just shrugged. "Just kinda happened."

Jace didn't like the answer. It was too simple, too vague. "Tell me what really happened."

Clary's body stiffened. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I want the truth, not some half wit lie."

Clary's eyes hardened for a split second and then went back to the neutral look the usually were. "I'm not lying."

This time Jace believed her. "Then tell me the rest and not a half truth."

"I don't see why you care so much."

"You really are impossible sometimes." Jace replied frustrated. There was silence for a little while before Jace continued. "Why do you even bother to talk to that loser?"

"What?" Clary looked at him again.

Jace started digging another hole. "I mean, the guy seems like a major jerk. That and if you guys grew apart, why even bother trying to be friends with him again?"

"Like you should be talking, you don't exactly come across jerk free all the time. Plus you don't even know Sebastian or what he has been through." Clary's voice was defensive. Jace didn't like it.

"Really, what was so bad that happened to him? Did he get dumped by his girlfriend? Not get the starting varsity spot he wanted as a freshman? Fail a couple classes because he couldn't get some nerd to do his homework? Ooh, I know, his parents got a divorce and now he takes it out on everyone else."

Clary glared at Jace, her face was red and her emerald eyes looked more like an eerie inferno. "Really, Sebastian is the jerk. Why don't you just mind your own business for once and stop trying to act like you know someone that you obviously don't."

Even though the words weren't that hard, they were full of venom and Jace couldn't help but flinch a little. And want to smack himself. "Look-"

"Just shut up and leave me alone." Clary said as she got up and started to walk away. Coach blew his whistle and signaled that it was time to get changed and everyone started to make their way to the locker rooms.

Jace had just walked through the door and was pulling off his shirt when someone stepped in front of him with their arms crossed.

"What did you say to her?" The person asked. Jace finished taking his shirt off and frowned.

"Sebastian." Jace said as he started to walk past him, not answering his question.

Sebastian grabbed his should and spun Jace around to look at him. "I asked, what did you say to her?"

"Who? Clary?" Jace said, his fists clenched at his sides. He really didn't like this scum touching him. Sebastian gave Jace a hard look as an answer. "You know, Clary already has enough guard dogs, I don't think she needs another one."

"And I don't think it is any of your business or that you should be bothering her. So leave her alone."

"Funny, I was thinking the exact same thing." Jace said with a fake smile.

Sebastian's dark eyes narrowed to slits as he glared at Jace. "Look, Clary's been through enough so I don't think some player like you should be bothering her."

"Like what? What is it that every keeps hinting at that makes her seemed like damaged goods." Jace wanted to kick himself, again, but this was Sebastian and he really didn't care what Sebastian thought.

"That is none of your business. Like I said: Leave. Her. Alone." Sebastian had his hands balled into fists as well.

Jace smirked a little. "Want her all to yourself, do you? Well too bad because I think she has outgrown you."

That did it, because no longer had the words left Jace's mouth was Sebastian's fist hitting his face. Jace was quick to react and dodged the next punch and went to tackle the boy. He only got a few more punches in before the other boys in the locker room were pulling them apart before Coach came in to see what was going on. The boys glared at each other and went to opposite ends of the locker room to get changed.

As soon as he was done changing, Jace left and made his ways to the doors of the gym. He wanted to have a chance to talk to Clary without Sebastian around. When Jace got to the doors he saw that Clary was the only one at the doors and she was pulling down the sleeve of her shirt. Before it was down Jace saw a glimpse of white that look like a bandage.

"Clary." Jace said softly.

Clary jumped and spun around to face him, her left hand tugging down her sleeve even more. "Jace." She said almost cautiously. Her eyes were wide and she almost seemed to be looking at him with a wary expression.

"Look, I'm s-" He didn't get to finish.

"What happened to your cheek?"

"What? Oh, that." Jace said as he brought his hand up to his cheek, sure enough the skin was tender with the beginning of a bruise. "Someone punched me in the locker room."

Clary looked at him with what appeared to be curiosity and he wondered why he just didn't tell her it was Sebastian who had punched him. But he quickly eliminated that option; it would just upset her again.

"Figures." She said. Her voice was a mixture of sarcasm and a lightness that almost made it seem like she was trying not to laugh. Jace just couldn't keep up with her and her moods.

"What does that mean?" Jace wasn't accusing her of anything, he was merely curious.

"Because I'm surprised it took this long for you to make someone irritated enough to punch you. In case you haven't noticed you have this uncanny knack of getting under peoples skin." Clary shrugged. It also looked like she was trying to keep a smile off her face.

"Maybe people just can't handle all of this sex appeal and awesomeness in one package." Jace said with a smirk.

Clary shook her head. "Aw, there he is."

"Who?"

"The arrogant Jace that you just assume everyone has to love."

"Hey now, people do love me. I mean, look at this face." Jace said as he motioned to himself, with a practice look of innocence on his face.

"Yes, you're like a baby alligator. Cute, until you decide to bite someone's finger or hand off." Clary made it seem like she was joking, but Jace couldn't help but pick up the little bit of hardness that seeped into her voice.

"So, what's with you wearing long sleeves to gym?" Jace asked as he noticed Clary was tugging on her right sleeve again.

"It's cold in the gym and it's just easier to wear long sleeves than to bother with a jacket." Clary spouted off quickly. "Why?"

"It's just that you keep tugging at your sleeve, but only your right one." Jace said as he motioned to Clary, who was once again messing with her sleeve. The moment he said it her hand froze and then dropped to her side.

"Oh." Clary said as she crossed her arms. Her opened and easy going attitude disappeared immediately and she became closed off. Jace could practically see the walls that Clary was putting up around her.

"Is the bruise really that bad?" Jace asked, hoping the change of subject would make Clary feel more at ease again. "It wasn't that bad when I looked in the mirror."

"It's really not that noticeable. I doubt anyone else besides Alec will even notice it unless it gets worse." Clary said in an almost bored tone.

"Why do you say that?" Jace was surprised.

"Alec seems to keep his eye on you. Like if he doesn't you may go off and do something stupid and he doesn't want to have to worry about you getting into trouble."

Jace was taken back a little. He was a little surprised that Clary had noticed how protective Alec was of Jace. But at the same time he wasn't as surprised as he would have been if it had been someone else, like if Jordan had made the discovery. Clary was observant.

"Then how did you notice the bruise if it's not that bad?" Jace asked curiosity getting the better of him. It was the wrong question because Clary's back immediately stiffened a little and her face had that blank expression it got when she was hiding something and didn't want anyone else to see what her true emotions were.

"Just did." She said cryptically. Her voice didn't give away anything.

Jace eyed her carefully. She was hiding something, it was obvious. He wondered if the others had figured that out yet. Jace didn't doubt Magnus was suspicious of something, it would explain why he seemed to keep such a close eyes on Clary. But what of the others? Simon seemed too oblivious, though he seemed to always be able to make Clary smile when needed. Maia and Jordan also didn't seem to act like they had noticed anything off with Clary. That or they just figured it wasn't anything to concern themselves with, they kind of had that kind of an attitude of if someone wanted to talk about something then said person would and if not the two of them weren't going to pry.

"You're hiding something." Jace said before he could stop himself. Not good, he shouldn't let her know that he was on to her, at least not yet. He wanted Clary to trust him, and he wasn't doing too good of a job at gaining her trust without ticking her off every time they talked to each other.

Clary seemed to almost hold her breath for a second before she let it out and glared at him. "I don't know what you are talking about." Her voice came out neutral but there was a frosty edge to it that could cut steel. Jace really didn't understand her mood swings.

"Yes you do." He pressed, but before he could say anything else or see what her reaction was Clary shoved the gym doors opened and stormed out. Jace was quick to follow her.

"Clary, wait. Please." He called after her as he jogged to catch up. She just kept walking. "Clary." Jace said again as he grabbed her right wrist tightly to keep her from pulling away.

Clary stopped the instant he grabbed her and gasped a little. She looked over her shoulder with wide eyes and Jace could see her clenching her jaw. Jace tightened his grip a little and he could feel the padding of a bandage under her sleeve. Clary yanked her arm away and grimaced a little as she did and walked away, hugging her arm to her chest. Jace was about to go after her but the bell rang and with it a swarm of students entered the hall way and Clary disappeared into the crowd.

The weird uneasy feeling that Jace had been getting a lot lately when it came to the little red head came back and his stomach tightened a little. Jace knew there was something up with Clary and now he thought he knew what. He just hoped he was wrong for once.

…

…

…

Clary hugged her arm to her the entire time as she ran into the bathroom. She was breathing heavy and her heart was pounding in her chest. This wasn't good. Clary went to the last stall, locked the door, and slid down against the wall. She ignored the fact that the bathroom floor was probably a fest pool of germs. Clary closed her eyes and tried to get her breathing back to normal as she thought back to a few minutes ago. She should have known no conversation with Jace was ever going to end well.

She shouldn't have said anything about the bruise. She also should have realized that the random change of subject was a trap, even if it wasn't meant to be a trap. But with Jace she suspected it really was a trap.

Clary had just dropped her hands to her side and then crossed them in front of her after Jace had pointed out that she kept messing with her sleeve. She hadn't even realized she was constantly pulling it down until Jace had said anything.

"Is the bruise really that bad?" Jace asked. "It wasn't that bad when I looked in the mirror."

"It's really not that noticeable. I doubt anyone else besides Alec will even notice it unless it gets worse." Clary responded. Jace looked almost surprised and asked why she would say such a thing. Clary merely responded that Alec seemed like he was protective of Jace. He didn't say anything for a moment.

"Then how did you notice the bruise if it's not that bad?" Jace changed the subject again.

"Just did." Clary shrugged. It was taking every ounce of her self-control to act like she was bored and that this conversation wasn't bothering her in the least.

Jace eyes her for a very long time and Clary was feeling very anxious for the stupid bell to ring. "You're hiding something." He finally said. Clary felt like she had the air knocked out of her.

"I don't know what you are talking about." She glared at him. Hoping he would take the hint that this wasn't a subject open to conversation.

"Yes you do." Jace said. The boy really couldn't take a hint. Clary couldn't stand him looking at her with those knowing eyes any longer so she left. She should have known that Jace would follow her. It was Jace after all. So when she heard him calling after her she just kept on walking, that is until he grabbed her arm. The second he did she froze in place as pain shot up her arm. Clary couldn't stop the gasp that escaped her lips, or looking over her shoulder even though she knew she wouldn't be able to wipe the pain from her eyes by the time Jace could see her face. Jace's eyes met hers and his grip on her arm tightened, pain shot up her arm yet again and Clary could almost feel the wound opening up again. She yanked her arm out of Jace's grasp, even though that hurt even more, and walked away. She was relieved when the bell rang and kids started to fill the hallway so that Jace couldn't follow her.

So now here she was, sitting on the gross bathroom floor trying to figure out how to do damage control. Perhaps if she just avoided the subject Jace would just forget about it.

_Fat chance._

With a deep breath Clary stood up and walked out of the stall and over to a sink. She pulled her sleeve up and gently removed the bandage. Clary sighed as she saw that the cut was indeed bleeding again and she rinsed off the blood in the sink. She then dabbed it dry and put on a new bandage with more antiseptic. After taking another deep breath she went to art class and took her seat beside Magnus. Thankfully Mrs. Barton didn't care that Clary was five minutes late, she merely nodded at Clary and went on expecting the other students projects.

"Where have you been?" Magnus asked as he looked away from his painting.

"Bathroom."

"Why?" Magnus asked.

Clary sighed. "Jace."

Magnus scowled a little but the answer seemed to satisfy him. The rest of class Magnus and Clary didn't talk much but whenever they did it was always safe topics, like Alec, Simon's crush on Isabelle, homework, how much the school's food sucked. Stuff like that. Clary took comfort in these pointless conversations. They were harmless and there wasn't any way for her to slip up or for people to back her into a corner without knowing it.

When school got out Simon took Clary home and then left. Clary went inside and started making tacos. It was another one of her father's favorites and she hoped it would help keep his mood mellow. It was nearly seven when she heard the police cruiser pull up into the drive way. Valentine came and slammed the door shut as he kicked off his shows and made his way into the kitchen. Clary's heart sank as she saw the half empty bottle of vodka in his hand. Valentine could handle beer just fine, but when he started to drink harder stuff it didn't take much to put him into a sourer mood.

"I made tacos." Clary said as her father took a long swig of alcohol and sat the bottle down on the counter top.

He nodded and Clary scurried out of the way as her father walked over to make his plate. She was still keyed up and cautious as her father ate his supper.

"Beer." Valentine said as he looked up at her and shoved more taco into his mouth. Clary wanted to point out that he still had a bottle of Vodka on the counter, but she wasn't about to take the chance of making him angry, so instead she went to the fridge and grabbed a beer and gave it to her father. She had just placed the can on the table when Valentine grabbed her wrist; thankfully it was her left one. He glared at her for a moment and then let her go. Clary repressed the sigh of relief that wanted to escape her lungs.

Twenty minutes and another two beers later Valentine was in the living room with his bottle of vodka and Clary was cleaning up the kitchen. She was so engrossed in her work that when she heard the sound of shattering glass she dropped the coffee cup in her hands and it shattered across the tile. She quickly bent down and started cleaning up the pieces.

"What was that?" Valentine's voice boomed behind her?

Clary looked over her shoulder and saw her father glaring down at her. She took a steadying breath and stood up with the broken pieces in her hands and threw them away.

"I accidently dropped a coffee cup." Clary said quietly. Hoping her father would take it as a sign of obedience and not defiance. No such luck.

"Stupid girl." Valentine said as he backhanded her. It wasn't the hardest he had ever hit her, but it still hurt.

"I'm sorry." Clary almost pleaded. She felt disgust twist her stomach as she realized she was acting weak. But the logical side of her argued that her father was drunk and there wasn't anything she could do when he was in one of his rages. Nothing but wait it out anyways. Still, the fighter in Clary couldn't help but feel a little repulsed.

Her father went to hit her again and Clary put up her arm without thinking. Valentine's eyes grew colder and his face grew red as he snarled at her in both anger and disgust.

"You ungrateful little-"Clary didn't hear the rest of what her father said because all of a sudden he had a handful of her hair and he slammed her head down against the counter top. Her visions went black around the edges and she sank to the floor, her legs suddenly not knowing how to hold up the wait of her frail body. This seemed to satisfy Valentine for the night because turned around and walked back into the living room. After what felt like hours, but was probably only a handful of minutes, Clary forced herself to get up. Once she was on her feet she had to grip the side of the counter top to keep herself from falling back down as her head spun. Finally she was able to finish cleaning up and once she was done she grabbed a couple more beers and sat them down by her father and retreated up the stairs. Clary took a couple Tylenol and jumped into the shower to wash the day off of her.

That done, she put on a pair of sweats and a t-shirt and laid down on her bed and waited for her headache to go away. She knew she didn't have a concussion; she didn't have any of the symptoms, so that was a relief. Eventually Clary could hear Valentine trudge up the stairs and to his him. Clary relaxed a little, he wouldn't be coming back out of his room until it was time for him to get up in the morning, and as much as he had drunk tonight he probably didn't have to get up and go to work in the morning. Feeling too restless to sleep or to even do homework, Clary got up, shoved her feet into an old pair of tennis shoes, and opened her window. There was a tree right by her window and without thinking twice, or even bothering to grab a jacket, Clary climbed out of her window and onto a nearby branch. She then made her way down the tree, careful to not let her right arm rub up against the bark since she hadn't bothered to put a bandage back on the cut after her shower.

Once she was safely on the ground she crept along the side of the house and made her way to the sidewalk. Then she ran. It felt good to hear her feet pounding on the concrete and to feel the wind in her hair. It was also nice to have her heart rate pick up because she was being active and not because she was nervous or scared. When she ran she wasn't weak, she wasn't cautious, she wasn't anything but a girl running. For once she was normal with no worries.

Clary was about three houses away from another turn when she heard her name called. She wasn't going to stop until the voice said her name again, and this time she recognized it.

"Clary." The voice said yet again. This time Clary did stop.

"Magnus," Clary said as she turned around to face her friend who was in sweats, a hoody, and slippers. "What are you doing out here?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Magnus laughed as he shook his head at her. Clary tried to get her breathing to slow down a little before she said anything. Without thinking she walked forward into the light of a street lamp. Magnus's eyes immediately went wide.

"Clary." Magnus said again as he walked towards her. Clary took a step back but Magnus's long legs closed the distance between them too fast for Clary to even out the distance. His eyes narrowed in on her wrist and then back up to her face. He had a stern look in his eyes.

Clary wanted to kick herself. She wanted to scream in frustration. How had she slipped up yet again today? She shouldn't have stopped, she should have kept running. How could she have been dumb enough to not take the time to grab a jacket? Why did she walk out of the shadows? She hadn't been thinking.

"Clary." She was getting tired of Magnus saying her name. "Why are there bruises on your face?"

Clary wanted to kick herself again. Without makeup on Magnus could easily see the blue marks on her skin, especially the new ones. She really should have taken the time to grab a jacket with a hood.

"What bruises?" Clary asked in an innocent voice.

"These bruises." Magnus said as he pressed his fingers against one covering her jawbone. Clary had to force herself to not clench her jaw or flinch away or anything else that would give away that the bruise still hurt.

Clary didn't say anything for a moment. "I don't know what you are talking about." She knew trying to act ignorant to Magnus wasn't going to work, but she tried it anyways.

"Just tell me." Magnus said in a stern voice. His eyes were hard but still friendly; he wasn't in the mood to mess around. Not knowing what to say, Clary opted to just not say anything at all. "Dang it, Clary, tell me. Does your father know?"

Clary's eyes went wide. "No! And you aren't going to tell him either." Clary hissed out. She couldn't have Magnus saying anything to her father because then she really would be in trouble.

Magnus frowned at her. "Why not? Who's doing this to you Clary?"

Clary started to protest with a lie but was quickly interrupted.

"And don't you dare try to weasel your way out of it with some excuse or made up story." Magnus said.

Clary took a breath before saying anything. "You know my father, he would over react." Guilt filled Clary, but she couldn't have Magnus running off and telling her father.

"Alright. Then tell me what is going on." Magnus demanded.

This time Clary didn't say anything. What was she supposed to say? What was there she could possible say that would ease Magnus's mind or even keep him from running to someone and telling them? What would he even believe? Clary's heart was starting to pound heavily in her chest and she could feel the beginning of panic spread through her. This wasn't good.

"Clary, who did this?" Magnus asked with sad eyes as he gently grabbed her right arm and lifted it so that they both could see the ugly cut on her arm.

"It really isn't that bad, Mags." Clary said gently, avoiding the question.

"Not that bad?" Magnus's voice was full of disbelief. "You're lucky it didn't need stitches."

"It really isn't that bad." Clary insisted.

Magnus sighed and let go of her arm. "Tell me who, Clary." This time is was a demand, not a question.

"I can't." Clary said, looking down.

"Like hell you can't." Magnus said frustrated. "I'm not kidding around Clary. You better tell me."

Clary looked at her friend. He meant it, he wasn't going to drop it until she told him, and she suspected that he wasn't going to believe one of her lies this time around. She really didn't know what to do.

"Alright, Magnus." Clary finally said, feeling defeated. "I'll tell you, but not now."

Magnus started to protest but Clary quickly interrupted him. "No, Magnus. I promise you I will tell you, and I will tell you soon. But I'm not ready to tell you right now."

"Fine." Magnus said. "But what about the others?"

At the mention of her friends a new wave of panic spread through Clary. "No, Magnus. You can't tell the others. Promise me you won't tell the others. Jace is already giving me a hard time about me not talking about my family. Plus I don't want the others to know. Not right now anyways." Clary said frantically.

Magnus sighed. "Fine. I promise I won't tell the others. Just as long as you tell me what's going on."

"I promise I will. I just, I need to think about it first." Clary said. She felt a little better knowing that Magnus wasn't going to say anything. The others couldn't know, she didn't want their sympathy.

Magnus let go of her and took a step back. Clary nodded at him and sprinted off before he could think of anything else to say or ask her.

Back in her room Clary collapsed onto her bed and let sleep consume her. How had she messed up so much in one day? Jace was suspicious of her and now she had no other choice but to tell Magnus the truth. How had walls and network of lies started to fail?

**So. Jace is really close to putting everything together, or at least he thinks he is. Magnus is about to find out the truth from Clary. And Sebastian is becoming protective of Clary once again, kind of. Well, I hope this was worth the wait. And I'm sorry for overlapping some of Clary's pov with Jace's, I just didn't know how else to write it and it still make since, I hope you didn't mind too much. Anyways, please leave a review and tell me what you think!**


	10. The Truth

Chapter 8

**So… Cassandra Clare owns the characters, Marvel and DC Comics own the teachers, and Good Charlotte owns the song Hold On, for which the title came from… Read on!**

Clary was looking at herself in the mirror of the girl's bathroom. Lunch had just started but she was still trying to get the nerve up to actually go to lunch, where she would have to sit with Magnus and act like nothing had happened last night. Jace would also be there and Clary was getting nervous that he was going to find out her carefully hidden secret as well. That and Clary wasn't sure she was up to acting normal amongst the others. Clary took a deep breath and then put her focus back on her reflection. She had been meticulous with her makeup this morning, making sure that the bruises weren't noticeable without making it look like Clary had a pound of makeup on. It really was a good thing she had three years of practice. After a few more seconds Clary decided that she wouldn't be able to put off the inevitable any longer, especially when it came to Magnus.

When Clary reached the table that her friends were sitting out she slipped into a spot between Simon and Isabelle and laid her head down in her arms on the table. She was exhausted and she hadn't bothered with trying to find something for her lunch that wouldn't upset her father. Food was one of few things that even when he was sober he was a bit stingy with, though it was something that was even worse when he was having one of his nights. Clary wasn't sure how long she was there before she noticed Jace's gaze on her, she also didn't know how she knew Jace was looking at her, she just did. But she most definitely wasn't about to acknowledge his presence, not when she felt so emotionally drained. She had been so glad when Chemistry had started and they had taken notes and been given a worksheet to do, it meant that Jace didn't have time to talk to her or question her about things she couldn't give strait answers to, especially when she didn't think she was up to coming up with a convincing cover.

Suddenly Clary heard her name being called. She promptly ignored it, maybe if she breathed slowly enough she could play opossum and they wouldn't bother her. Much to her disappointment it didn't seem to be working.

"Clary." The voice said again, and even with her arms shielding her ears she could tell it was Magnus. Clary suddenly felt extremely nervous.

She took a deep breath before looking up. Magnus was looking at her with a mixture of mild concern and some other emotion she couldn't quite name. Clary could feel the other's eyes look between her and Magnus and she was instantly uncomfortable. Magnus, seeming to notice this, stood up and motioned for her to follow him. Clary sighed and followed her friend as he led her out of the cafeteria and down the hallway and around the corner. Suddenly Magnus stopped and Clary had to take a step back to keep herself from running into him.

Turning around, Magnus sighed and looked at her as he crossed his arms. "So, are you going to tell me?" His tone was expectant.

Clary swallowed and started pulling at her right sleeve again, but Magnus's eyes were quick to pick up her fidgeting and she quickly dropped her hand. She took another deep breath before saying anything.

"What… what do you think happened?" Clary stuttered, looking at the floor.

She heard Magnus sigh. "I think that is obvious. The only reasons for you to have bruises on your face and a cut on your arm are you were either in a fight or someone abused you. Now the former isn't likely, so that leaves the latter."

"How do you know I wasn't in a fight?" Clary's voice was even, but even to her ears it was somewhat meek.

Magnus laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Really, Clary?"

Clary just sighed; she still wasn't able to look anywhere but at the floor.

"Now, are you going to tell me as you promised or are you going back on it? Because if you are then that means I am free to tell someone if I wish, including your father."

Clary snapped her head up at Magnus at the mention of her father, her breath caught in her throat. At first Clary thought he was just bluffing to try to get her to talk but looking at the expression on Magnus's face made it clear that he wasn't kidding, he was dead serious.

"Magnus." Clary croaked out, barely audible. "Magnus," she tried again, "I promise I will tell you. I will, just not now. Not _here_."

Magnus eyed Clary carefully. "Clary." His voice was almost condescending.

"_Please_, Magnus." Clary pleaded. "I promised and I will keep my promise. But it has to be somewhere safer."

"Safer?" Magnus looked at her puzzled.

"Somewhere where it will only be you and I. That way I know for sure no one else over hears us. No else can know but you, Magnus."

Magnus nodded but still looked a little uncertain. "Clary-"

"No, Magnus. It is my secret, my life. So I will tell you under my terms and you will swear that you will not tell a soul, no matter what it is."

Magnus looked her in the eye for a while, it was almost as if he was waiting for her to back down but Clary wasn't going to back down, especially not when she had suddenly found some new found courage. Finally after what seemed like hours to Clary but had in reality only been a handful of seconds Magnus nodded his head.

"Fine."

"Thank you, Mags." Clary said, relief flooding through her. Yes she had to tell someone her secret, but she was still in control because it would be on her terms that Magnus found out the truth.

"When are you going to tell me?"

A little of Clary's bravado dissipated at Magnus's question. It was obvious that Magnus wasn't going to be patient on this matter and the sooner she told him the sooner he would stop badgering her about it.

"I can tell you tonight." Clary sighed.

"Where?"

"The park. I'll text you when I'm about to leave my house."

Magnus nodded and then hugged Clary. "It's going to be alright, Clare, I promise."

Clary gave her friend a stiff smile as he stepped back a step. She was thankful, for what seemed like the hundredth time, that the bell rang. She didn't know what to say to Magnus and she was sure she would be able to keep up what little of her easy going façade she had left going.

…

…

…

Magnus still felt uneasy. No matter how many times Clary tried to reassure him or brush off his concern he couldn't shake the feeling that whatever Clary was going to tell him tonight was going to be big. It had to be for Clary to be so hesitant to tell even him about it and then to make him promise to not tell anyone else. He just hoped he could keep his promise. Magnus knew that Jace had P.E. with Clary, he also knew that the boy was very observant, which is why he was waiting around the corner from the gym waiting for the bell to ring so he could grab Jace and talk to him for a second. He had never had a chance to talk to Jace after last weekend and he felt like now was as good a time as any.

The instant the bell rang Magnus strained his ears to hear the arrogant voice of Jace Lightwood. Sometimes Magnus was truly amazed that Jace was Alec's brother. Sure he knew that Jace was adopted, but it still amazed him how close the two could be for being so completely different.

Suddenly Magnus heard Jace laugh and her turned his head towards the sound, all previous thoughts gone in an instant. Without a second thought Magnus stepped away from the corner and found the golden haired boy a couple feet away from him. Magnus quickly grabbed Jace's arm and pulled the boy behind him.

"What-" Jace started but was quickly shut up at the quick glare Magnus gave him. Magnus didn't stop until he was in a corner of the building he was sure they would be safe to talk in. Stopping he turned and look at Jace.

"Look, I'm flattered by you kidnapping me, but we don't bat for the same team." Jace smirked. Magnus scowled at the boy.

"Don't knock till you try it." Magnus said with a devilish grin, hoping to make the arrogant boy squirm and was rewarded with Jace's eyes looking at him in slight shock and him shifting his weight a little.

"Now," Magnus said, completely serious, "I want to talk to you about Clary."

Jace's brow furrowed a little and he seemed to be looking at Magnus almost uncertainly. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I want to talk about last weekend, among other things." Magnus said as he crossed his arms.

"Look, I already apologized to Clary about that and she said she was fine." Jace said defensively.

"I want to know what you said to her. I also want to know why she's been upset to often at lunch and art. It has to do something with you."

Jace sighed as he leaned against the wall. "I don't know why but every time I try to talk to her I always manage to stumble across some subject that makes her really defensive and then she just gets mad at me. I swear I'm not trying to piss her off on purpose. It just kind of happens." Jace shrugged, but sounded completely sincere.

"Like what?" Magnus asked, still eyeing Jace.

"Her family mostly. That and yesterday with Sebastian."

Magnus sighed and ran his hand over his face. Of course, he should have known. Jace was a curious person and he didn't know anything about Clary's past, it was only natural for him to dig to try to find the truth.

"I suggest you stay off the topic of her family." Magnus said finally. He was rewarded by a sarcastic look from Jace. "And Sebastian." This was returned with a scowl.

"Why?"

Magnus closed his eyes and then opened them again. Jace was getting on his nerves. "Clary's had a rough time." Magnus started and then seeing the look on Jace's face he held up his hand and continued. "It not my business to tell you about Clary's family, though I have no doubt you could learn bits and pieced from other people. I just think that it should be up to Clary when she wants to tell you and how much. Same goes for Sebastian."

` "So you don't like him either." Jace stated.

"Sebastian? Not practically, no. He and I never saw eye to eye. The only reason he ever really put up with me was because I was Clary's friend." Magnus answered. Jace really was observant. He hadn't even been aware of his slip of his dislike for Sebastian.

"So is that all you wanted to talk to me about?" Jace asked as he pushed himself away from the wall.

"No. I wanted to ask if you have noticed if Clary has been acting strange or not." Magnus stated carefully, watching Jace's reaction.

"What do you mean?"

"I think you know exactly what I mean." Magnus stated impatiently. That boy needed to find a different question to use.

Jace frowned and raised him hand to the bruise on his cheek bone, almost subconsciously. A bruise that Jace had almost seemed proud of and had been adamant to tell everyone at lunch how he had been rewarded with it after getting in a fight in the boys locker room yesterday.

"Yesterday, after I was done changing in the locker room, I went to talk to Clary. I had upset her and I wanted to apologize." Jace sighed as he dropped his hand to the side. "She noticed my bruise right off, even when I could barely see it in the mirror right after. Clary tried to assure me it wasn't that bad, not that I really cared. But when I tried to ask how she had noticed it in the first place she just shrugged it off. I called her out on the fact that I thought she was hiding something, just for her to run out of the gym doors before the bell rang." Jace was frowning and his brows were furrowed. Magnus could tell he was holding something back that Jace was clever and was probably slowly putting together pieces of the puzzle that was Clary's secret.

"She noticed your bruise." Magnus was still watching Jace carefully.

"Yes."

"What happened after you called her out on it?"

Jace looked at him as he too was gaging Magnus and his responses. "What-"

"Don't you dare," Magnus said, "tell me now."

"I went after her and grabbed her right arm. Have you noticed her constantly pulling down her sleeve? I have, I called her out on that too but she brushed it off and I changed the subject. Anyways when I grabbed her she basically flinched away and I grabbed her arm tighter and she just looked at me wide eyed as if I was hurting her, even though I wasn't holding her tight enough to hurt her. She yanked her arm away from me and walked away, the bell rang as she did and I lost her in the crowd." Jace said, his thoughts all over the place, something that didn't seem to be a common Jace trait.

Magnus suppressed a sigh. So Jace had noticed Clary acting strange. In fact, Jace may have been the first one to notice it. The thought made Magnus feel bad a little. He was Clary's friend; he should have noticed something was up. But then again she hadn't been acting any different for the past three years; he had just thought that the way Clary acted now was a result of her dealing with things. Magnus had never thought about there being more too it.

"What is it?" Jace asked when Magnus didn't say anything. Magnus could practically hear the gears turning in Jace's head, hear him becoming more suspicious.

"It's nothing right now. I was just thinking." Magnus said quietly then looked up at Jace. "Thank you for telling me. Just please try to not push Clary too much on uncomfortable subjects, no matter how curious you are." Magnus reminded him and started to walk away.

"Wait." Jace said as he grabbed Magnus's shoulder. "That's it?"

Magnus looked over his shoulder at Jace. "Look, I can't tell you anything right now. But the way you are going you may just figure everything out on your own. Maybe if you can stop being a jerk for about five minutes Clary will actually start to trust you. Once she does I'm sure she'll open up more, she's not one to tell just anyone about her life."

The two boys looked at each other for a few more seconds. Finally Jace let go of Magnus and nodded. Magnus faced forward again and started to walk off. He didn't know why, but if there was anyone Clary was going to open up to it would probably be Jace. Magnus just hoped he wasn't wrong about trying to throw Jace a bone.

…

…

…

Jace didn't move from the spot in the hallway he was standing in for a while, even after Magnus was long gone. For some reason he just couldn't seem to wrap his head fully around what had just happened. Sure he found out that Clary wasn't an overly opened person and she had a past of some kind she wasn't willing to talk about, but Jace had already assumed that and this had just confirmed the suspicion. But he had also ended up with several more questions. Magnus knew something, something the others probably didn't know, and for some reason he thought Clary might actually tell _him_. Jace could hardly go five minutes without upsetting her. How was he going to gain her trust to tell him whatever it was she was hiding? _Why_ would she even tell him to begin with? And why did Magnus seem to think that Clary would tell him? Jace honestly had no idea.

Finally, after shaking some of the thoughts from his head, he headed to class. Hopefully he wouldn't get in too much trouble for being late, not that he really cared in the end. Jace just didn't wasn't his family jumping his case about skipping half of a class. As Jace walked to his class he saw a flash of red and stopped, then made his way to where he had seen it. He stopped at the door of the girl's bathroom and put his ear to the door.

"How am I going to tell Magnus?" He heard Clary's voice, even with the door muffling the sound. _Tell Magnus what?_

"What happens if he breaks his promise and tells people anyways? No, he wouldn't do that. Besides he knows how much I don't want anyone else knowing." Clary's voice seemed to become resolved a little.

_What was she talking about?_

Jace heard running water and then the sounds of the paper towel dispenser and quickly stepped away from the door and continued on his way. He was even more confused now. But he was just that more determined to figure out himself what was up with Clary.

…

…

…

Clary was lying on her bed dressed in a pair of sweats, a hoody, and old tennis shoes, waiting to make sure her father was asleep before she left. Finally she heard snores coming from the direction of her father's room and texted Magnus. Pocketing her cell, she opened the window and made her way down the tree and once her feet touched the ground she made her way to the park. As she walked along the sidewalk she pulled of her hood to cover her face and stuffed her hands in her pockets with her head down. It didn't take Clary long to reach her destination. The park wasn't the kind with swings, slides, and teeter totters but a make shift skate park with a few ramps and other things skaters could do tricks off of along with two picnic tables.

Clary paused in the shadows as she spotted Magnus already sitting on one of the tables with his back to her. She had to take a deep breath before she could continue on to where Magnus was. He heard her before she was even half way to him and turned around.

"Clary." Magnus said as he looked at her. Clary gave him a half smile. "What's with the B and E outfit?"

Clary sighed. "Nothing."

Magnus gave her a disbelieving look as she stopped in front of him and before she could do anything he swiped her hood off. To his credit, Magnus didn't gasp, but his eyes did widen in surprise for a second and then hardened a little. Clary had to force herself to not look away or try to hide her face. Valentine had had another one of his bad nights, which resulted in more bruises and a slight cut on her forehead that Clary had no idea how she was going to be able to hide tomorrow.

"It's not that bad, Mags."

Magnus gave her a look that said he thought otherwise. "Stop trying to make this into nothing, Clary." Magnus chided her.

Clary didn't say anything but she did get onto the picnic table to sit next to her friend.

"So, when are you going to tell me who did this?" Magnus questioned. Clary couldn't tell if he had any suspicious as of to whom it was or not. But in the end it didn't really matter if he did suspect anyone.

"Yes, but please, promise me one more time that you won't tell a soul. Not any of our friends, not your family, not a teacher, no one." Clary pleaded. Magnus gave her a doubtful look.

"You have to promise, Magnus."

"Fine. I promise not to tell anyone." Magnus agreed somewhat reluctantly.

Clary took a deep breath to steady herself. She had kept the truth secret for nearly three years now and she wasn't sure how to go about telling Magnus the truth.

"Alright. Just, please don't say anything until I'm done. I'll tell you everything, when it started, who, everything. But only if you don't interrupt."

Magnus nodded his consent and looked at her with his steady golden green eyes. Clary took another deep breath.

"The person who has been the cause of all the injuries is…" Clary paused. She was second guessing herself. What if Magnus didn't keep his promise? What if he didn't want to be her friend anymore? What if he looked down on her and thought she was weak?

Magnus grabbed her hand in his and Clary look at him, her thoughts disappearing. Magnus nodded for her to keep going. His eyes full of emotion. In his eyes Clary could see concern, sympathy, gentleness, protectiveness, and many other things. All of it positive. Clary took another deep breath as she realized that Magnus wouldn't abandon her. He wouldn't hate her or look down upon her, he would merely try to protect her and lend her his strength and comfort, which was what he had been doing for the past three years.

"My father." Clary croaked, barely audible as an unwanted tear slid down her cheek. "My father," this time her voice was steady, "he's the reason."

**Sorry for taken so long. I had meant to get this chapter out at the beginning of the week. If I'm able I will try to write another one this weekend and post it. **


	11. Too Many Questions

Chapter 9

Clary looked cautiously at Magnus, holding her breath. Magnus's eyes were wide and his mouth was open but his surprise quickly changed to what Clary could only name as furry and protectiveness. Though Magnus's eyes were now narrowed some he was still looking at Clary with a kind expression. Clary took that as a good thing. It meant that he didn't hate her or find or inferior.

"Your. Father." Magnus's words were clipped and hesitant. It was almost as if he was still wrapping his head around it. Clary just nodded.

"Since when?"

"You know when." Clary replied sadly with a small smile. She didn't know why, but she was trying to make Magnus feel better, which was ridiculous.

"I'm sorry, Clary." Magnus squeezed her hand. "I can't believe I didn't notice. I should have known."

"Yeah right, like I was gonna give you the chance to figure it out on your own." Clary laughed without any humor.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I didn't want you to look down on me." Clary said quietly. "Plus it just didn't seem necessary to tell you, to have you worry about it. It's my burden to bear."

Magnus took in a deep breath. "What are you talking about? I never look down on you, you are my best friend. And I do not care what you say you should have told me sooner. No one deserves to handle something like this on their own, especially after all that you have been through. I know you are strong Clary, but you can't be afraid of some help."

Clary smiled. "You know me. I've always been fairly independent. And like I said, I didn't want you to worry about it."

Magnus sighed. "You can be so ridiculous sometimes, Clarissa Morgenstern."

There was a moment of silence and then Clary asked, "So, you're not going to fight me on the not telling anyone?"

Magnus sighed again. "No," he responded and then paused, "I, I would like for you to tell an authority figure. A cop, a teacher, just someone. But you have made it clear that it isn't what you want."

Clary was about to say something when Magnus continued to speak. "But, if it gets worse or he does something that goes over the line, I will tell someone."

Clary wanted to protest, but seeing the look in Magnus's eyes she decided against it. She was lucky that he wasn't demanding to go to the cops at that exact moment. Clary didn't want to send her father to jail, yes he needed help such as anger management classes and or going to AA but she wasn't going to put charges against her father. In her heart she knew it wasn't good for her father, all the drinking he did, and that he needed help before things got worse, but it was how he coped. Yes, it wasn't a good coping method at all, but Clary would rather her father be happy part of the time and angry the other than depressed the entire time. She didn't know what that said about herself, if she was naive or needed help herself, she just knew she didn't have the heart to add to her father's misfortune.

"I can handle that."

"Good. So, could you tell me what all he's done?" Magnus questioned carefully. Clary could tell by his voice he just wanted to know and didn't have any ulterior motives, she just didn't know why.

Clary nodded and proceeded to tell Magnus everything, or at least most of it. She told him how it had just started as an occasional slap, which had increased to more slaps and sometimes a few punches. Then the being pushed and thrown around started and it just kept escalating from there to where it was now. Clary admitted that recently was the worse it had ever been with the burn and the thrown beer bottles. She left out the kicks and the time her father had broken her wrist early sophomore year. Magnus listened to her quietly as she gave him an account of the last three years.

"So, it is only when he's drunk." Magnus said once Clary was done.

"Yes. There are times he won't drink for at least a week and then there are times when he drinks a couple times a week. Rarely does he drink more than three or four days out of the same week. That and it depends on how much liquor he has had. If he's only had a beer or two then things are usually fine, it's when he keeps on drinking that he becomes irritated easily. He always feels bad the next day though, when he remembers anyways."

"What do you mean he always feels bad?"

"I mean that usually he will try to make it up to me somehow. New phone, go shopping, something like that. It's his way of saying sorry."

Magnus looked like he didn't know how to respond at first. "Is that why you don't want to tell anyone, because he makes an attempt to apologize for beating you?"

"No. I didn't want anyone to know because I knew they wouldn't understand. My father just doesn't know how to cope. I've tried to get him to go to a councilor but he's too proud to even think about it. He just needs help, that's all." Clary answered.

"He's a cop, Clary. He shouldn't be drinking and he should know better than to take it out on you. It's hypocritical! Putting people away for the exact same thing he is doing."

"Don't you think I know that! I do! So does my father! He, he's just too ashamed. You know him; he's proud and doesn't believe in accepting help from others." Clary had to force herself to not yell at her friend.

"Besides," Clary added quietly when Magnus didn't say anything, "you promised not to tell anyone, at least unless if for some random reason things get too direly worse, which they will not."

"I know. I'm sorry. It is just hard to believe that you father-" Magnus seemed to be at a loss for words because he didn't finish his sentence and instead just let out a deep breath.

"Clary?" Magnus said after a moment of silence. "Thank you. Thank you for finally telling me."

"Thank you for not freaking out."

After that they just sat in silence for a while until they finally decided to separate and head back home. As Clary climbed into her room and closed the window she noticed that she felt better and a little more at ease. A little of the wait had been lifted off her shoulders. Magnus knew the truth and he wasn't going to tell anyone and she no longer had to lie or be careful around him. It made Clary feel better and more at ease than she thought it would have.

…

…

…

The rest of the week went by quickly and fairly uneventful for Clary, a fact that Clary was very grateful for. Valentine hadn't had any more bad nights and had even offered surprised Clary Saturday with chocolate pancakes and a box of new art supplies consisting of paint, paint brushes, charcoal, stumps, pastels, and a new sketchbook. Clary had been very surprised and extremely happy at the gift. Her father didn't always recognize her love for art, at least not recently, and whenever he did it made her extremely delighted. Monday had even gone well. Magnus still watched her like a hawk, but he seemed content by the fact that her bruises were fading and no new ones were making a presence. The oddest thing that had happened was that when Jace had decided to strike up a conversation with her in chemistry and gym they had managed to get through it without him saying something that left Clary upset. It was refreshing and Clary was starting to think that she could grow to like Jace.

It was Tuesday and as Clary walked down the halls to her locker to put her stuff away and go to lunch she couldn't help but notice all of the posters that lined the walls advertising the upcoming dance. The Halloween Masquerade to be exact. It was Next weekend and though most of the school had been talking about it for the last month Clary was not looking forward to it at all. In fact, she had been able to ignore the entire clamor it had created until today when the posters had appeared. Halloween wasn't a particular favorite holiday of Clary's, too many bad memories.

Clary continued on her way to join her friends at lunch, determined to not allow the dance that was taking place next weekend ruin her good mood. However, when she found a spot between Magnus and Simon she couldn't suppress the groan that came out of her throat as she caught the tail end of Isabelle's comment about how she needed to go shopping for the dance.

"I think you have enough clothes, Isabelle. You most definitely don't need anymore." Alec stated sternly, though his eyes were amused.

"It is a masquerade, Alec! I don't have anything for a Halloween Masquerade!" Isabelle complained.

Clary took her banana out of her brown paper bag and started to peel it. Perhaps if she concentrated on her lunch she wouldn't have to worry about the conversation at hand. No matter hard it was to tune Isabelle out.

Isabelle's frustrated voice brought Clary's attention from her half eaten banana as her friend said her name. Clary looked up at the dark headed girl and sighed a little at the disgruntled look on her face.

"Did you hear a word I just said?" Isabelle questioned.

Clary tried to give the girl an apologetic look. "No, sorry."

Isabelle sighed. "It's alright. I asked if you wanted to go shopping with me after school Thursday for the dance."

"Which I quickly told her you most likely wouldn't because you aren't going to the dance." Magnus quickly said. Clary looked at Magnus and saw the understanding in his eyes; it made her heart hurt a little.

"Why wouldn't Clary go to the dance?" Isabelle practically wined.

"Clary doesn't go to Halloween dances that often." Maia said.

"They are right. Clary never goes to the Halloween dance. The last time she did was in middle school, and we had to force her to go to the one." Kyle added when Isabelle looked like she was about to protest again.

"Just because she hasn't gone in the past doesn't mean she won't go this year." Isabelle stated, the others' comments not seeming to affect her in the least. "Right, Clary?" Isabelle looked at Clary with expectant dark eyes.

Clary sighed again. "They are right. I don't like go to the Halloween dances and this year won't be any different." Isabelle looked a little disappointed but it didn't faze her for long.

"Why not?"

Clary's head snapped to Jace who had voiced the question. Looking at him carefully she didn't see any hint of anything but innocence. He didn't have that searching look in his eyes that he got when he was trying to get information out of her; this was a question of pure curiosity. There was no dubiousness.

"Why does it matter?" Simon voiced. This surprised Clary a little bit. Simon knew, along with all her friends why she didn't go to Halloween events, but she hadn't expected him to speak out. At least not with Isabelle around, Clary couldn't help but notice how infatuated he was with her. That and Simon usually let Clary stand up for herself, he wasn't as willing as Magnus as to make her angry for butting into her business.

By everyone's reactions they were also surprised. Magnus was slightly wide eyed, along with Maia and Kyle. Isabelle had her head cocked to the side as was looking at his carefully, while Jace had his eyes furrowed a little. Even Alec seemed a little confused. Simon, noticing that everyone's eyes were on him blushed a little and bushed her glasses up his nose.

"There's no reason to force her to go if she doesn't want to." Simon stated a little more quietly as he looked down at his lunch as if it was suddenly fascinating. Clary sat her nudged Simon under the table and when he glanced at her she gave him a small smile. Simon nodded and continued to stare at his food.

"I still want to know." Isabelle stated, not relenting in the slightest.

"Would you just give it a rest?" Magnus demanded, his normally calm voice rising a little.

"Magnus." Clary said softly as she looked at her friend. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jace give Magnus a questioning look. Magnus turned his attention to her.

They looked at each for a while, communicating with their eyes only. Finally Magnus sighed and looked away. "Fine."

"Well." Isabelle ignoring the tension wasn't about to give up.

"I just don't really like Halloween. I find it a pointless holiday." Clary stated easily. It was the excuse she always used. Only the first part of it was true.

"That doesn't mean you can't still go shopping with me." Isabelle responded. At least she wasn't going to fight Clary on going.

"I don't know, Isabelle." Clary responded cautiously.

Isabelle looked like she was about to tell Clary she was going rather she wanted to or not when a voice to her right said her name and out of the corner of her eye she could see Jace tense up a little and his eyes harden.

Clary was surprised to see the dark haired boy who stood behind where Isabelle sat. "Sebastian."

"You are still really into art, right?" Sebastian smiled, his question more of a statement.

"Yes. Why do you want to know?" Clary was puzzled.

"Well, I at the student government meeting yesterday the question of the decorations for the dance came up and I told the committee handling it that I knew someone who could paint backdrops for us." Sebastian explained. Clary had almost forgotten that he was one of the class representatives for the senior class. "So, I was wondering if you be interested in the job. I mean, if not it's alright, I'll have to tell the committee that they would have to come up with something on their own, and-"

"No," Clary interrupted. Sebastian seemed to be getting more agitated as he continued talking and Clary wanted to ease his discomfort. "It's alright. It sounds like fun."

"So you'll do it?" Sebastian's face looked hopeful.

"Yes, I'll do it."

"Great. I can tell you more after school if you would like, or even during gym."

"If we get a chance you can tell me in gym."

Sebastian nodded. "Thanks, Clary."

"You're welcome, Seb." Clary said, letting the childhood nickname slip out before she could stop herself. She gasped as she look wide eyed at the dark haired boy. "Sorry, it slipped-"

"No," Sebastian insisted, his dark eyes kind and somewhat reminiscing looking. Clary was slightly relieved that he only seemed mildly sad and pained or even ticked off for her slip of the tongue.

"Sebastian."

"It really it alright, Clary." Sebastian smiled. "Besides, it has been forever since someone's called me that."

"Three years." Clary said softly.

"Well, I better get going." Sebastian said after sharing an understanding look with her. "See you in gym, Red." Sebastian's eyes twinkled mischievously at the use of his old nickname for her before walking away.

"Clary," Magnus's voice was full of concern. Clary looked over at her friend.

"What was that about-" Isabelle started but stopped when Magnus gave her a hard look. Simon then asked Isabelle who she was thinking of going as to the masquerade and she was quickly distracted.

"Are you alright?" Magnus's voice was soft enough for only Clary's ears to hear.

"Yes, Mags, I'm fine." Clary reassured him.

Soon everyone was having their own little conversations: Alec and Jace, Maia and Kyle, Simon and Isabelle, Magnus and Clary. Looking over at Simon for a moment before focusing on Magnus again Clary couldn't help but feel happiness that Simon had managed to get over his nerves and actually talk to Isabelle. The boy had been crushing so hard on her since the Lightwoods had started school. Magnus was currently whispering to her about how he was going to ask Alec to the dance and Clary smiled at him, glad that Alec seemed to be slowly getting more comfortable with Magnus's teasing and flamboyant flirting. As Clary told Magnus how she thought his idea was perfect she couldn't help but glance quickly at Jace; she had felt his gaze on her ever since Sebastian had left.

Jace smiled at something Alec had said and replied with a sarcastic remark. Clary had only let herself look at him for the barely a second but it was enough to see that even though he was laughing with Alec, he had a hard look in his eyes. Clary had understood his hostile expression when Sebastian was talking to her, though she still didn't understand why Jace didn't like Sebastian, but she had no idea why his eyes were still trained on her. Giving up on trying to figure it out, Clary turned her full attention back to Magnus.

…

…

…

Jace was sitting with Alec as they waited for their sister and Magnus get done shopping in whatever store they were currently in. They had probably been to every store there was in the mall and Jace's feet were killing him. Maia and Kyle had come to the mall with them as well, but they had left thirty minutes ago to go to a movie. Part of the reason Jace felt like Isabelle was taking so long in each store was because she was still a little disappointed and upset that Clary hadn't come with them. Isabelle had begged, demanded, and next to threatened Clary to go shopping with them. In the end Clary had said that her father wouldn't let her and that had put an end to the subject. After school Jace had heard Isabelle ask Magnus about it and he had backed Clary's claims up, saying even though she wasn't grounded anymore she was still in some trouble.

"Jace." Alec's voice brought Jace out of his thoughts. Jace looked at his brother. "What's up with you?"

"What do you mean?" Jace said puzzled. He really didn't know what Alec was getting at.

"I mean you have been really quiet the entire time we've been here, usually you are either complaining or cracking jokes and being sarcastic the entire time. Neither of which are happening."

"I'm just tired."

"And the sky is pink and the sun sets in the south." Alec snapped back good-heartedly.

"Well that wasn't necessary."

"Jace." Alec's voice held a warning in it.

"Fine. I just-"

"Just what?"

"Don't say anything, but I think there's something up with Clary." Jace admitted.

"What do you mean?" Alec asked almost cautiously.

"It's just she never talks about her family and whenever anyone does she gets all uncomfortable."

"That's it. That is what's bothering you, the fact that she doesn't like to talk about her past." Alec sat back and ran his hands through his hair. "In case you haven't notices, but you don't like to talk about your past either."

Jace was about to argue the point but Magnus and Isabelle had walked out of the store and were only a few feet away from them. He wasn't afraid of Magnus hearing the conversation, but he didn't really want to bring Isabelle into it.

"What did you guys do, buy out the whole store?" Alec laughed.

"No, but we did get some clothes for you." Isabelle exclaimed. Alec immediately paled a little.

"Oh, don't look like that. I helped Isabelle pick the clothes." Magnus looked like he was holding back a smile. This seemed to make Alec panic even more because his eyes got a little wide.

"Please don't dress my brother in bright colors and sparkles. I like being able to look at him without being blinded."

Magnus gave Jace a hard look. "You get no say in this, Goldie."

"I agree with Jace, I don't know if this is a good idea." Alec was squirming in his seat now.

"It's fine, Alec, we only bought a few pairs of jeans and a few shirts. Plus they aren't flashy." Isabelle sighed. Alec let out a deep breath of relief, earning him a look from both Isabelle and Magnus.

"It really is too bad Clary couldn't come with us." Isabelle wined for what seemed like this millionth time as they headed towards the parking lot.

"I told you, her father still isn't happy about her breaking curfew." Magnus's voice held a little of an undercurrent to it.

"Her father just seems so strict. Clary said she was ungrounded Sunday and its Thursday!" Isabelle wasn't giving up on the subject.

Valentine's a cop," Magnus shrugged a little, "it makes since that he would be a little strict with her. Plus she missed her curfew, a very generous curfew I may add."

"I still think he's overreacting a little. I mean, what has happened in the past for him to be such a psycho dad?"

"Isabelle." Alec said sharply as his frowned at his sister.

"What?"

Jace looked over at Magnus who had stiffened a little at Isabelle's last comment. Alec started to reprimand Isabelle again but Magnus quickly interrupted.

"It's alright, Alec, Isabelle is just curious." Alec gave Magnus a doubtful look so Magnus continued. "Valentine is just a little over protective of Clary. He trusts Clary, but he is a cop and he's worked a lot of cases of young girls who have been kidnapped, murdered, or even physically harmed. He is just a father."

"I guess that makes since." Isabelle admitted. Suddenly Isabelle's face changed and she looked at Magnus. "What about her mother? Doesn't her mother get a say at all?"

Magnus stopped walking and seemed to take in a sharp breath and hold it. Alec gave Isabelle another hard look, which she was oblivious to. Jace just stopped and watched, curious of what Magnus's response would be.

"Well?" Isabelle prodded when Magnus didn't answer right away.

Magnus looked down and let out his breath and then took another deep breath before looking back up. Jace couldn't read Magnus's face at all, but he could see in Magnus's eyes that he wasn't comfortable.

"It's just Clary and her dad." Magnus finally said. His voice was calm and even but Jace could tell that that he was holding back a little.

"What happened to her mom?"

"Isabelle Sophia Lightwood, would you give it a rest? It isn't Magnus's job to tell us every little thing about Clary. Maybe if Clary wanted us to know she would tell us." Alec chastised.

"Fine. I'll drop it." Isabelle blinked, shocked at her brother's reaction.

Magnus seemed to be relieved by this and Jace saw him relax a little. This struck Jace's curiosity a little, even if it shouldn't have. He just couldn't help but wonder what had happened in the past for Clary's friends to be so protective of her. What happened to her mother? Why did Clary never talk about her?

The rest of the walk to their cars was quiet. Magnus said goodbye and went to his car and drove away and the Lightwoods went home as well with Alec behind the wheel, Jace in shotgun, and Isabelle in the back. She hadn't said a word since Alec had gotten on to her and she seemed to almost be sulking. The only thing breaking the silence was the radio the entire trip home.

**Hope you liked the chapter! Magnus is going to keep Clary's secret, at least for now, and Isabelle and Jace are slowly starting to become more curious of Clary's past. Please review and I will try to have the next chapter up as soon as I can.**


	12. Beginnings of Friendship

Chapter 10

**Since I have had several people say they want more Jace, and who wouldn't, I have decided to start this chapter from his point of view. Enjoy!**

Jace had made it a point to get to chemistry before Clary did. It was Friday and Jace couldn't be happier about the fact that the weekend was right around the corner. This past week had seemed to go on forever and he wanted nothing more than to find the nearest party and have a good time. To drink and dance and make-out with some random girl, to just forget about Clary and her secrets and everything else. Jace suddenly realized he was being selfish and sounded like a complete jerk, but then again, that was what he had worked so hard to come off as, a jerk.

There was a _thump_ and Jace turned his head to see Clary sitting beside him. She was wearing a simple long sleeved tee, washed-out skinny jeans that had rips in them with lace tights underneath, and a pair of black combat boots that looked well worn. Jace always noticed what Clary was wearing, he didn't know why, he just did. It was another thing about Clary that was an anomaly. Focusing on her face he noticed that she seemed tired and her eyes were a bit dull. He was about to ask what was wrong when the tardy bell rang and Mr. Banner turned to face the class, he had been writing something on the marker board as the students had entered the class.

"We are going to move on to a new project today." Mr. Banner said and if Jace didn't know any better he thought the teacher almost seemed amused.

Groans sounded around the room and Mr. Banner continued. "Now, before you complain too much it will be done with partners and it will not have anything to do with chemical formulas." This caught the attention of many of the students, Jace included. What project could the possibly do in chemistry that had nothing to do with formulas?

"You will be working with the same partners you currently have and will have to work out of class to get the project done because you will only have today and Monday in class to work on it. The project will be due the following Monday after Halloween, so I expect you do manage your time wisely." With that he started to hand out papers pertaining to our project.

"Mr. Banner, this is biology." A student across the room said as he looked at the paper. Jace looked down to see that the title was said: GENIOLOGY.

"And your point is, Mr. Jenkins?"

"We're in chemistry." The boy said with a hint of amusement in his voice.

"So you are aware of what class you are in, Matthew." Mr. Banner replied with a twinge of sarcasm in his voice. "What a relief."

Some of the kids laughed a little. Matthew didn't seem to care.

"Then why are we doing biology?" Matthew questioned.

"Change of pace. I though perhaps if you got to know your new lab partners a little better then maybe some of you wouldn't try to blow up my classroom." With that the amused chemistry teacher went off into the details of the assignment and there were no more interruptions from Matthew or any of the others.

At first Jace wasn't exactly pleased that he would have to work on the assignment out of class until he realized that it would help him to learn more about Clary. There was even the possibility that they could work on the project some at her house. This lightened Jace's mood a little and he started to look forward to working on the project. It could very well be the key to him finally being able to figure out what is was Clary was hiding. He glanced over at Clary to see what her response to the new assignment was, but her face was a mask. There was nothing in her face or her eyes that gave Jace any clues to what she was thinking, her expression a complete blank. Jace puzzled over this for a second until he noticed that Clary was now looking at him as well, her emerald green eyes meeting his golden ones.

"Jace." She sounded a little bit annoyed.

"What?"

Clary sighed. "Did you hear what I just said?"

Jace fought back a blush, and was jubilant in his victory as he replied. "No, sorry."

Shaking her head Clary sighed again. "I asked when you wanted to work on the project."

"Oh. Well, we could do what we can on our own this weekend and then maybe work together after school Monday."

Clary nodded. "Sounds fine." Jace wasn't sure, but it almost sounded as if she was tired.

"Great, but we will have to work at your house." Jace said, curious of her response.

"Why my house?" Clary's voice was even and her face didn't give anything away, but Jace saw her fold her hands together under the table.

"Because between Isabelle and Max we won't get anything done at my house."

"Who's Max?" Clary's voice was curious.

"Little brother, he's twelve."

"Must be nice to have a little brother," Clary said almost wistfully. Jace couldn't help but wonder what the distant look in her eyes meant or the almost reminiscence in her voice.

"He's a good kid. He is always reading comics or playing video games."

"I'd like to meet him." Clary stated suddenly, the distant look no longer in her eyes. She must have noticed Jace's surprise to her statement because she continued. "I know your other two siblings; I think I'd like to know the youngest of the Lightwood siblings, especially since you are all extremely different."

Jace couldn't help but laugh a little. At the look Clary gave him he composed himself and smiled. "Sorry, it's just that statement is so simple and yet couldn't be truer."

Clary smiled back, though it didn't completely reach her eyes.

"Hey, are you alright?" Jace asked. He noticed that Clary stiffened a little.

"Why?"

"You seem tired."

Clary relaxed and sighed. "It's just been a really long week and next week will be even longer."

Jace nodded and was about to say something else when the bell suddenly rang, he was starting to really hate that bell.

"See you in precalculus." Clary said lightly as she stood up and left. Jace could only nod. It was the first time that they had ended on a good note, or at least good enough for her to acknowledge his presence in their fourth hour class with Mrs. Richards. Perhaps he could be friends with Clary.

…

…

…

It was lunch and Jace was sitting between his brother and Kyle Jordan as normal. Clary was telling Magnus something and Simon and Isabelle had their heads bent together as they discussed something. They had gotten close lately and Jace didn't know what to think of it. He liked Simon, but the geek was most definitely not the kind of guy Isabelle usually went after, so the fact he would catch Isabelle flirting with him had him completely confused. Clary glanced at Jace for a second out of the corner of her eye and then looked back to Magnus he was now frowning a little. With a smile and a shake of her head, Clary pulled a loose strand of Magnus's hair. Magnus batted her hand away in mock irritation but was soon smiling again. Jace couldn't help but wonder how Magnus talked to Clary with such ease. It seemed like Magnus always knew what or what not to say, especially when Clary was in one of her moods. If Jace was completely honest with himself, he was almost jealous, jealous of the fact that even when Magnus did say something that upset Clary she was quick to forgive him and jealous of the fact that he could make her smile.

Jace shook the thought from his head. There was no reason to be jealous, especially of Magnus, even more when it came to Clary. Jace ran his hands through his hair, what was wrong with him?

"Clary."

Jace immediately tensed up at the voice and his head snapped to where the sound had originated.

"Oh, hey, Sebastian. What do you want?" Clary smiled at the dark headed boy. Jace's blood started to boil, just like it did every time the other boy so much as looked at Clary.

"I was wondering if you wanted to work on the backdrops for the dance Saturday. I know you are usually busy after school, so I thought Saturday might be a good day. It would be out of the way that way." The boy smiled at Clary and shrugged a little as he put his hands in his pockets.

Clary's brow furrowed a little. "Oh." Her voice was almost hesitant. "Well, I will have to ask Dad. I can text you once I know for sure."

"I'm sure he'll say yes, especially if you tell him you're helping me out."

Jace glared at Sebastian, who didn't even notice.

Clary scoffed. "Yeah, well it depends on if I'm finally on his good graces again."

Magnus stiffened a little at that and Jace noticed him give Clary a look.

Sebastian's smile dimmed a little. "Why what happened?"

"I missed curfew a couple weekends ago and even though he ungrounded me this past Sunday he's still been a little hesitant to let me do anything." Clary laughed. It sounded forced, but it didn't seem like anyone else noticed if it was or not.

"Well, hopefully he will let you. I thought we could start around ten or so in the morning and hope we were done by four that afternoon."

Clary seemed to think about what he had said and nodded after a few seconds. "I don't see anything wrong with that. I'll ask when he gets home."

"Maybe he'll be in a good mood." Sebastian smiled again.

Magnus seemed to huff a little at the comment but, once again, no one else seemed to notice. That or they just didn't really care.

"Maybe." Clary allowed a slight smile on her lips.

"Great, well see you in gym, Red." Sebastian waved and then sauntered off to a different table. Jace instantly bristled at the use the nickname.

"Like your dad will care rather or not you are with him." Magnus muttered a little under his breath.

"Magnus." Clary started.

"No, I don't care if he practically used to live at your house. That was three years ago. Things have changed since then and I seriously doubt your father will be too thrilled about the idea, especially when he hears why you will be with him." Magnus's voice was quiet and he seemed a little disgruntled. Clary shot him a look and he sighed. "I'm sorry, Clare, but you know I don't like him."

Clary sighed as well. "I know, Mags, but I figured you would be glad I was actually doing something for once."

"I am glad. I'm just surprised that you took him up on his offer. Any other dance, sure. But this one? I just don't get it. Are you sure this won't do more harm than good?"

"It's been three years, Magnus, and besides this will be a great opportunity to expand my art."

Magnus spoke even softer and it was hard for Jace to pick up what he was saying. "Are you sure he will say yes?"

"If he's in a good mood then yes." Clary answered just as softly.

"What if he isn't in a good mood?" Clary just looked at Magnus and he narrowed his eyes a little. "Don't do anything stupid."

"Oh, please, Magnus, I spend most of my day in my room and out of his way anyways. He wouldn't even notice I was gone as long as I'm back in time to cook supper." Clary replied dryly.

This peaked Jace's interest. Sure he felt a little bad for listening in on their conversation and ignoring Alec, but he couldn't help it. Jace wanted to know Clary's secret, and the current conversation seemed to be in the ballpark. Magnus frowned at Clary and said something so low that Jace could no longer hear what was being said. After only picking up a few insignificant words, Jace turned his full attention back to his brother, or at least tried to.

The rest of the day Jace tried his hardest to not stare daggers at Sebastian anytime he saw him in the halls or in class, though gym was a challenge. Jace couldn't help the anger that swelled up within him when he spotted Sebastian talking to Clary. He also couldn't help when he hit the whiffle ball too hard and accidently, purposefully, hit Verlac in the back of his head. Sure he had been thinking it would be nice, but he hadn't actually meant to go through with. Jace hadn't even fully realized what that he had indeed went ahead and pelted the white ball at the boys head until Sebastian turned and looked at him with his hand rubbing his head. Thankfully, Coach hadn't been watching and Jace was quick to put on a look of shock on his face as he apologized. Sebastian seemed to believe him, nodded, and didn't say anything about it later in the locker room. Jace really didn't know what was going on with him, all he did know was that he wasn't going to party after all because he had other plans for the weekend that didn't need to be hindered by a killer hangover.

…

…

…

Clary was surprised when she looked at her clock and saw that it was already nine o'clock in the morning. Heart beating fast she got out of bed and quickly made her way downstairs just to find a note on the kitchen table from her father.

_Clary,_

_ I didn't feel the need to wake you as I left early this morning, should be home by six. _

_ -Dad_

With a sigh, Clary picked up the note and carried it with her back up the stairs and placed it on her desk. She then quickly got dressed in a pair of washed out jeans that had paint on the bottom of the pant legs and an old gray t-shirt that had a random design in black that had faded from being washed so many times. Then, after digging through her closet for a good ten minutes she found an old beet up pair of high top vans that were denim blue and had bleached out stars littered on them. After piling her hair on top of her head into a pony tail she grabbed her car keys and headed down the stairs. Clary still couldn't believe that her father was actually letting her help. Even thinking about it now, it was hard to believe.

_Clary was twirling a piece of her hair around her finger when she heard the cruiser pull into the driveway and the sound of her father's footsteps making their way to the door. She could hear the door open and close and her father kicking off his shoes for the day. Valentine trudged into the kitchen and sunk into his spot at the table. _

_ "Smells good, Sweetie." _

_ "I hope so." Clary smiled as she pulled the lasagna and garlic bread she had left in the oven to keep warm out. She dished some of the lasagna onto a plate and placed a couple pieces of bread with it and took it to her father. He smiled at her and dug in. After only a couple bites he looked up at her._

_ "I swear I have to be the luckiest man to have a daughter who can cook as well as you." He smiled at her. "Why don't you join me instead of just standing there?"_

_ Clary did as she was told and dished some lasagna for herself and grabbed herself a piece of bread as she sat down across from her father. "You're just lucky I enjoy cooking." Clary said good heartedly. _

_ Her father nodded and continued to eat his supper. Clary did the same and they ate in slice for a while. It was actually kind of nice. Comfortable even. _

_ "Dad," Clary said softly as she picked up her father's plate to get him seconds, her father looked at her and she continued. "I was wondering if it was alright if I went to the school tomorrow."_

_ "What for?" Her father asked confused as she placed his plate back down in front of him._

_ "Sebastian Verlac asked me if I could help him get together some of the decorations for the dance next weekend. The student council is trying to save money by making as much as they can on their own instead of buying things." Clary responded._

_ "Oh." Valentine's brows creased a little, not in anger or frustration, but more as if he was puzzled. "Well, that would be fine with me. I'm actually going out with some of the guys tomorrow and will be gone most of the day. I don't see anything wrong with you helping as long as you still get work school work and chores done." _

_ "I will, I promise." _

_ "Then it is alright with me." Her father smiled as took a bite of lasagna. _

_ "Great. Thank you." Clary responded happily as relief flooded through her. She was instantly glad that her father was in a very good mood. _

Shaking her head, Clary locked the front door behind her and walked to her car. When she got to the school she parked behind the gym and went in the back doors, as instructed by Sebastian. She had texted him last night that her father had given her the okay and again when she was getting ready to leave. He had said he would wait in the gym until she got there, but looking around Clary didn't see him anywhere. Suddenly Clary heard a thud and she hurried to the other side of the gym from where the sound had originated. There she found a box on the floor and random objects scattered across the floor. A figure was bent over picking stuff back up and Clary couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Having trouble there?" Clary asked

Sebastian looked up at her with his hair in his eyes. "Not at all, and thanks for the help." He picked the box up and Clary caught a bag of paint brushed before they could hit the floor again.

"You welcome."

"When did you get here?" They started walking to the middle of the gym where Clary noticed there were tarps spread across the floor.

"Only a couple minutes ago." Clary answered as he lowered the box to the ground carefully.

"That's good. I was hoping you hadn't been here too long waiting for me." Sebastian smiled. "I hope I got all the stuff you needed."

Pulling some things out of the box to see an assortment of paint, brushes, pallets, and a few other art tools Clary nodded. "Looks like you got everything. If not I can easily run back to the art room and grab something."

Sebastian seemed to almost be relieved and smiled back at Clary. "That's good."

"Where are the others?" Clary asked looking around as the lights slowly came on, the gym was still empty besides Sebastian and her.

"Oh. A couple people are in the cafeteria and a few others in the wood shop, they should be back soon. I think there are about ten people or so who should end up being here within the next hour." Sebastian stated running a hand through his hair.

Clary nodded and Sebastian opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by the sound of his name being called from the gyms doors.

Sebastian sighed. "I'm sorry I better see what they want." He almost seemed disappointed.

"It's alright." Clary smiled. "Besides I better get started painting if I want to get done."

Sebastian frowned for a moment but then smiled again. "Alright." The voice yelled Sebastian's name again, this time a little irritated, and he turned to look at the doors. Looking back he said, "I better go before they have a cow. See you later."

"See you later." Clary replied as Sebastian started to walk away. He lifted his hand up in a sort of wave and Clary couldn't help but smile. Some things never changed.

Five and a half hours later and it was just after 3:30 and after Clary had washed out her paint brushes and put everything back into the box that Sebastian had brought. She had barely made it a couple steps out of the gym doors when she bumped into someone and fell on the floor, spilling the contents of her box across the hallway floor.

"I thought we've been over this, I know I'm irresistible, but you really need to stop throwing yourself at me." A familiar, sarcastic, amused, voice said to her.

Frowning, Clary looked up to see golden eyes and a smirk looking down on her. "You really aren't that attractive. How do I know you aren't the one running into me on purpose?"

Jace feigned a look of hurt. "Not that attractive? Blasphemy."

Clary shook her head as she pushed herself onto her knees and started picking stuff up and placing it back into the box. She heard Jace sigh and then he was bent down and started helping her pick up art supplies. Once done, Clary grabbed the box and stood up.

"Thank you." Clary said, shifting her wait a little.

"You're welcome. It's the least I could do. I wasn't paying any more attention to where I was going than you were." Jace replied.

Clary nodded and started to walk around him.

"Wait." Jace said and grabbed the box from her before she could protest. Clary frowned and opened her mouth but before she could say anything Jace shook his head and interrupted her. "Don't, just let me be a gentleman for once."

Clary scoffed a little. "You? A gentleman? Doesn't that hurt your street cred or something?"

Jace looked over at her and raised an eyebrow. "Street cred? Really?"

"What? I just don't want you ruining your rep."

"What rep?"

"The: I-don't-give-a-crap-about-anyone-or-anything rep."

Jace shook his head. "I wasn't aware I already had a reputation."

"You do, in fact you seem to have many, but that basically sums all the others up into one." Clary replied. Jace made a snort sound but didn't say anything. They walked the rest of the way to the art room in silence. Clary was surprised to find the silence comfortable and not weird at all.

"Thank you for helping." Clary said as Jace set down the box on a table that she had motioned to as they walked into the art room.

"No problem." Jace said.

Clary started to put things back in their place. Half way through the box Clary could still feel Jace's eyes on her as he watched her and she turned around to look at him.

"What?"

"What?" Jace asked back.

Clary sighed. "Why are you just standing there watching? Is there something else you wanted?"

"No," Jace said almost slowly, "not really."

Clary shook her head and finished putting away what was left. When she was done Jace was still standing by the door, his hands in his pockets.

"So, you like to draw?" He asked her suddenly.

Clary scoffed at him. "Do I like to draw?" She said in an almost unbelievable tone.

Jace raised his hands in mock surrender. "Sorry, it was just a question."

After a moment Clary sighed. "Yes, I like to draw." She said using air quotes. "I also like to paint. Really if it's anything art related I probably like it." She shrugged.

Jace nodded and then to her surprise she asked. "Would you like to see something I'm working on in class?"

Jace's eyes widened for a split second and then went back to normal so fast Clary thought she had imagined it, but he nodded and Clary motioned for him to follow as she made her way to the back of the class room. She stopped in front of an easel and took the cloth off that was covering the painting, revealing a picture of a city landscape at sundown.

"It's not what I usually like to paint or draw, but I couldn't get the idea out of my head."

"What do you usually do?" Jace asked as he stared at the painting.

"I like scenery, but I usually stick to something less urban, like the ocean or a river, or a fall landscape."

"Then why did you paint this?"

Clary sighed. "I guess it's supposed to be a present, in a sense. The person I thought of when the idea came to me really would have loved it."

Jace continued to look at the painting for a moment before he looked at her. "Clary, why don't you ever talk about your family?"

Clary could feel her eyes go wide and opened her mouth to say something, what she didn't know, but Jace held up a hand before she could even try.

"I don't mean to sound rude or noisy or anything, I'm not even trying to start something or be a jerk, I'm just curious. All I ever hear you talk about is your dad, but I get the sense that there are more to your family than just you and your dad. It's just no one talks about it, ever."

Clary closed her mouth and look into Jace's eyes. In them she could tell he was being completely sincere in what he had just said. He really did just want to know. Clary sighed, she couldn't blame him. It wasn't Jace's fault he didn't know anything, he was new and her friends wouldn't say anything, neither would anyone else in the school either most likely.

Clary sat down on a nearby stool and looked at the painting, getting lost in the orange and reds and pinks of the setting sun and the golden colors of the city she had painted, whishing things weren't as they were and that she really could give the painting as a present.

"My brother, Jonathan, he always wanted to travel. It was the only thing he could ever talk about. All he wanted was to graduate high school and travel the world before he went off to college. He wanted to go to Italy, Spain, Greece, Austria, Norway, and the Netherlands. There were so many places he wanted to see. But most of all he wanted to go to Germany.

"I could never fully understand his wanting to see Berlin and Munich and every other city in Germany, though I did understand his want to travel and appreciated it. I personally would love to go to Ireland or Japan, especially in the spring when everything is newly blooming.

"But not Jon, he wanted to go to Germany, in the middle of summer. Granted some parts of Germany are cold, even in summer because they are so high up in the mountains and it rains so much, but it's where he wanted to go. He was always going on and on about how he would love to see the sun set over Rathaus-Glockenspiel in Munich. I don't know why, it still seems idiotic to me, but it's what he wanted.

"So I painted what he wanted. I think a part of me was trying to figure out what was so grand about it, so magical, that my brother was so insistent to see it in person. Even after almost finishing the painting, I still don't understand. Not completely. I think I understand a little bit of where he was coming from, the clock is impressive, but I don't see why he would choose it over seeing the sun set in Italy or Spain or anywhere else really. "

"Why don't you ask him?" Jace asked, even though Clary could tell in his voice he knew why, or at least suspected.

"Because I can't, because he no longer has the ability to want or wish or dream, because he's not here." Clary replied. It had been a long time since Clary had talked about her brother and she wasn't ready for the pain that came along with talking about him or acknowledging the fact that he no longer walked the earth. Even after nearly three years it still hurt as much as it did the day he had left the world, left her alone. The only thing that had gotten better was Clary's ability to _not_ think about it all the time. She had gotten good at avoiding things that reminded her of her brother and when she couldn't avoid them she tried her hardest to just ignore the pain all together. But when she actually talked about him and thought about him, there was nothing that could keep her heart from aching from the loss, nothing to buffer the pain.

Clary closed her eyes and took a deep breath and then opened them and looked at Jace, forcing a smile. Even with her heart feeling as if it was being ripped apart, she wouldn't cry. In fact she hadn't cried since her brother had been placed in the ground, forever separated from the living and from her. Part of it being the fact that her father saw tears as a weakness and Clary had learned to agree with him and part of it being the fact that she refused to let her pain have that much control over her.

Jace looked at her with sad, understanding eyes, but he didn't say anything. Finally he said, "You had a brother." Most people probably would have found his painfully obvious statement ridiculous, but Clary found comfort in it. Mostly because he didn't say he was sorry like people did. She couldn't express enough just how sick she was of people giving her pitying looks and saying they were sorry whenever they found out the truth, which was most of the reason Clary had just stopped telling people who didn't already know. She didn't want their pity, didn't want their apologies over something they had no control over and had nothing to do with whatsoever.

"Yes, I had an older brother, Jonathan." Clary said, standing up. "Come on, I'll show you something."

Jace gave her a questioning look but did as he was told and followed her as she walked out of the art room and down the hallways of the school until she arrived in an area close to the gym where the school kept all of the sports trophies. She stopped beside a trophy case that held a jersey and a picture of her brother. Clary had never allowed herself to notice the case that was a constant reminder of her brother. Just standing in front of it now was a feat in and of itself, because every nerve of her being was telling her to turn around and run away, but she refused. But in all honesty the true feat was the fact that she was opening up to Jace. She didn't know why, but Clary just had this feeling that she could trust him, that if she let herself open up to him some he would be a valuable friend. Clary didn't know why, especially after all the crap that had happened between the two of them, but Clary wasn't about to back down now, even as she stared into the dark eyes of her dead brothers picture.

…

…

…

"What's this?" Jace asked, standing beside Clary. He had walked past the trophy cases many times and had even stopped to look at the many state trophies a few times. In fact, he had even looked at the two tribute cases that were found among the trophy cases, one was of a football player from the seventies and one of a soccer play from a few years ago. They were now standing in front of the soccer player's. In the case was a picture of a boy with blond hair so pale it was almost white and incredible dark eyes, a jersey, and a soccer ball.

"My brother was good at almost everything he did," Clary started, her voice sounded almost distant, "especially when it came to sports: football, basketball, baseball, tennis, hockey, even swimming and lacrosse. If it was a sport, he was good at it. It didn't matter if he didn't know how to play, once he knew the ground rules and understood the overall gist of a game he could play it, and sometimes was even better than those who had been playing that sport for years. But out of all of those sports, the one my brother loved the most was soccer, and in all honesty I think it came second to boxing, but the school doesn't offer boxing as a sport." Clary smiled a little sadly at this and continued. "He was good, he was the first freshman in almost twenty years to start varsity. Everyone said he was going to be a legend. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that by the end of his senior year he could literally choose any college he wanted to play for, because what college wouldn't want him. Some even thought he would be good enough to play for the Olympics if he kept at it.

"When he died the school retired his number and put it in this case, along with his picture and the ball from the last game he played in. The coach had kept it and was going to give it to him after the weekend because of the fact that they had beaten their rival team and my brother had scored the winning goal." Clary looked at Jace but he wasn't sure if she could really see him or not, but he stayed quiet and didn't say anything.

He couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her, not that he was about to say that out loud. He knew for a fact it was the last thing she wanted to hear, but it was so obvious that she loved her brother and that his death was hard on her that he couldn't help but feel a little bad. But overall he just felt overwhelmed by the fact that she was telling him this.

"Thirteen, huh." Jace said after a moment of silence as he looked at the jersey.

Clary laughed a little, a laugh that sounded happy but if you listened carefully you could hear it was full of sadness and longing. "Jon loved the number thirteen. Even though everyone thought he was crazy what with thirteen notorious for being unlucky and everything, but Jon said he made his own luck and he was going to prove that his talent was more than any supposed unlucky number could hinder. At the time I had thought he was just being extremely cocky and arrogant, and I told him just that. All he did was laugh and play it up some more. But now, looking back, I realize he wasn't being cocky at all. He was just stating the truth." Clary shrugged at the end and smiled a little at the memory.

Jace didn't know what to say. So instead he looked at the case and his eyes focused on the name tag below the picture of Clary's brother that read: Jonathan Christian Morgenstern. Beneath the name were the dates 1994-2009. Jace looked over at Clary and even though she was doing a remarkable job of seeming in control of her feelings, he could tell that she was feeling the pain of the loss of her brother and it was taking her every fiber of her being to try to hide the pain in her eyes and in her body language.

"He doesn't look anything like you." Jace said finally, not wanting the silence to continue any longer.

Clary laughed, and Jace was relieved to hear that it was a genuine laugh and not a forced one. "People could never believe we were siblings. Even though after a while of being around us they would admit they didn't know how they missed it because of how we acted around each other but they could never get over the fact that we didn't share one thing in common with each other when it came to looks. Hair, eyes, bone structure, height, we didn't share a shingle physical trait in common. Somehow he was a carbon copy of my dad and I was a carbon copy of my mom. Not that I mind, though I wouldn't have minded getting my dad's height at least." Clary smiled.

Jace tried to imagine Clary being taller than she was and couldn't picture it. He wasn't going to admit it, but he like her the way she was, vertically challenged and clumsy included.

"That makes a lot of since." Jace said.

"What does?" Clary asked, her eyes not hiding her puzzlement.

"Why you also look nothing like your dad." Jace said. He wanted to ask about her mother, what had happened to her, but he wasn't about to push his luck. It was a miracle in and of itself that she had opened up enough to tell him about her brother, especially since it seemed like it wasn't something she talked about.

Clary's smiled broadened. "Yeah."

Silence filled the hall as Clary didn't add to what she just said and Jace didn't fully know what else to say. Finally he asked, "What about Sebastian?"

Clary furrowed her brow for a second. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, how do you really know him?"

"Oh, he was Jon's best friend. I swear Sebastian practically grew up at my house. It seemed like if Jon wasn't at Sebastian's house, then Sebastian was at our house. Usually it was our house. I think that was because of the fact that my father's a cop and they boys thought that was cool, what with them being little kids and all."

Jace chuckled a little. "Makes since, granted when I was younger I wouldn't want to be in a cops house, even if it was my best friend's dad." He joked. Clary raised her eyebrows at him, but he didn't give any more of an explanation.

Clary looked at him for a second and then turned back to look at the jersey and picture of her brother. Once again silence filled the hallway until Clary turned to look at him again, only she didn't say anything, and neither did he. Jace took advantage of the opportunity to take a good look at her, from her old vans to her curly red hair in a ponytail. She had paint on her clothes and hands but she didn't seem to care. Looking into her emerald eyes he could tell she was analyzing him as well, but at the moment he didn't really care.

Jace was starting to get the weird since that even with her tiny frame she was a lot fiercer than most thought she was. In fact, he knew from experience that she wasn't afraid to stand up for herself and that when agitated her attitude was just as fiery as her hair.

With his signature smirk he said, "You, know, you have paint on your face."

Clary's hand flew up to her face and her hand covered the blue paint that was on her cheek. With a smirk of her own she let her hand fall and shrugged. "Glad to know that you paid enough attention to notice."

Jace couldn't help the grin that spread across his lips at her snarky remark.

"See you later, Jace." Clary said as she turned and headed back to the gym.

"See ya; don't forget about our project Mr. Banner assigned us." He called after her. Clary gave him a thumbs up over her shoulder and kept walking.

When she got to the gym doors she looked back over her shoulder. "Thanks, Jace." She said before she opened the door and disappeared into the gym. Jace didn't know why but the sound of her saying his name without its normal malice and agitation made his heart beat a little faster.

**I cannot state how immensely sorry I am for the horribly long wait. I started this chapter at least two weeks ago but I just never had the chance to finish it and I really am sorry. But between my term paper and softball and random other school activities I haven't had the chance to write. Crappy excuse I know. But I only have about three weeks left until I graduate, which means I'll have more time to write! Anyways, hope you enjoyed the fact that most of this chapter was from Jace's pov and that he finally found out a little bit about Clary and that the two of them are finally becoming friends! So, please, tell me what you thought. **


	13. The Truth Comes Knocking

Chapter 11

**I am so terribly sorry for being MIA for so long! I started this chapter right after I posted the last one but then I got stuck and I had finals, and graduation, and state softball, and then work…. I'm so sorry (again)! Now with me working I will try my hardest to update at least every other week (if possible once a week). If I don't I am terribly sorry. Please just be patient with me, trust me, I know how frustrating it is to wait weeks for the next chapter to a fanfiction. Please don't hate me! But I do hope this chapter makes it up a little. (It also happens to be the longest chapter I have ever written so far, if that helps at all.)**

Clary was surprised by how well her weekend went. Saturday, after she left the school, she went straight home and had just finished making supper when her father walked through the door, a string of fish in hand. The fact that he had taken the time to go out to the country with some of his friends and fish made Clary happy, it had been a really long time since her father had found interest in any of his old hobbies. When her father finished his meal Clary helped her father fillet fish. It was another one of those moments that made it seem like old times and it made Clary's heart ache a little. Sunday, Valentine was in a good mood all day again. He spent his day watching sports and Clary did her school work when she wasn't needed to cook.

So, needless to say, when Clary walked into her second hour class and sat down beside Jace she was pretty happy. Jace seemed to pick up on her good mood as well and smiled at her as she pulled out her things from her bag.

"Why are you in such a good mood on a Monday?" Jace seemed oddly amused.

"Why? Is it a crime or something?" Clary snorted.

"No, but it's not necessarily normal."

"I had a good weekend, now shush so we can work on our assignment."

"But if I shush then I can't talk to you about the assignment."

Clary gave Jace a pointed look to which he just returned with one of his half smirks.

"Fine, let's work on our assignment." Jace said when Clary stayed silent.

The rest of class went by quickly and without a hitch. Jace didn't ask any tricky questions and Clary didn't get mad at him once. They had managed to decide on what traits they wanted to look at: hair color, eye color, dominate hand, height, hair type, and a few other traits.

When the bell rang Clary was surprised that class was already over and hurried to shove her things into her bag.

"I think we will be able to get a lot done at your house tonight." Jace said as he slung his bag over his shoulder and started toward the door.

"Yeah-" Clary started but then stopped when Jace's words sunk in. Clary's eyes widened and her heart skipped a beat. She had completely forgotten about Jace coming over. Snapping her eyes up to Jace she was just about to tell him that maybe they should meet somewhere else when her teacher called her name, stopping Clary in her tracks. She made her way to the front of the room and stopped at her teacher's desk and looked towards the door to see that Jace had already disappeared. Suppressing a sigh, Clary turned her attention back to Mr. Banner.

"Yes, sir?" Clary said as she forced a smile.

"I was just wondering how it was going with Jace. I know he can be a little. . . problematic at times." Her teacher smiled at her.

Clary had to suppress a laugh at the fact that even her teacher found Jace's personality a little tedious to deal with. "Things are going well."

"Good to hear."

"Sir?" Clary asked a little hesitantly.

"Yes?"

"I know you already explained how this project is supposed to help us get to know our partners, but why does it matter?"

Mr. Banner smiled. "Because you will be working with Mr. Lightwood for the rest of the semester, and more than likely next semester as well unless I find it necessary to change a few pairs. I created this exercise because I don't want any quibbles breaking out during a lab and having someone blow up my class room." He laughed a little. "That and I think you will find out that you two have more in common than you think."

Clary was lost for words at her chemistry teacher's last comment and knew she had to be looking at him with a puzzled expression. "Sir-"

"Now you better get to your next class before you are late, here's a note just in case." Mr. Banner held out a slip of pink paper.

"Thank you." Clary said as she nodded her head and, note in hand, she exited the classroom.

Clary made a beeline for Mrs. Kyle's English class and hoped that if she was late that she didn't walk in while her teacher was talking about Friday's reading assignment over The Great Gatsby. She couldn't believe she had forgotten to ask her father, or at least inform him, of Jace coming over to do school work. Valentine didn't like not knowing when someone may or may not be at their house, especially one of Clary's friends. A little voice inside of Clary told her that was because he didn't want to come home drunk when he was a cop. Clary quickly silenced that little voice and shrugged the thought off. He father was just very precautious ever since the accident three years ago, she couldn't blame him for wanting to know almost everything and being so strict. It didn't mean Clary liked it, not in a long shot, but she understood his view point on it, unlike a lot of teenagers her age. With a sigh Clary speed walked into her English class and slid into her seat a mere second before the late bell rang.

…..

…

…..

Thankfully Clary's two classes before lunch went by quickly, unfortunately, however, Jace was nowhere to be seen and lunch was halfway over. Clary suppressed a sigh and continued to pointlessly stir her applesauce.

"Okay, what's wrong?" Magnus placed his hand over Clary's to stop her movements. Clary looked up at her friend who had decided on sparkly purple eyeliner that day and noticed his yellow cat eyes had held a mixed expression, half being concerned and half aggravated.

This time Clary did sigh. "Jace and I are doing this project in Mr. Banner's class and we only had today in class to work on it, so Jace decided it would be a good idea to work on it at my house tonight. Which we had decided this Friday, but it completely slipped my mind and I didn't ask my dad and now I don't know what to do."

"Why don't you ask if you can go to his house instead? Or even the library?"

"Because Jace said his house would be too noisy and the library we wouldn't be able to talk that much. Plus, either way I would have to ask my father if I could stay out, and I wouldn't be giving him very much advance warning." Clary replied, a little defeated.

"Well, whatever you do just be careful."

"Magnus." Clary's voice held a warning.

"Look, this week is going to be rough and your dad will probably be having a rough time. So please just promise me you will be careful and call or text me if anything happens. And I do mean _anything._" Magnus said a little defiantly. Clary decided to not fight him on it because it was apparent that he was going into one of his mother bear phases and there was no derailing Magnus after he had decided there was a reason that Clary needed to be looked after. But no matter how annoying it was, Clary couldn't help but love Magnus even more for caring.

Clary allowed her lips to curve into a small smile and refrained from rolling her eyes as she complied, somewhat hesitantly. "Fine. I promise."

Magnus scrutinized Clary for a few second before nodding his head in acceptance. "Good." Then after a few moments of silence, "so, how are you holding up so far?"

Clary didn't have to ask to have to know what Magnus was referring to. "I'm doing alright actually. I don't think it will really hit me until Wednesday. The last few weeks have just been so crazy that I haven't really had time to dwell on _that_, which is weird, since usually it's all that I can think about." Clary shrugged as she continued to stir her applesauce.

"Maybe that's a good thing. It's been three years. It's time you moved on in your life."

Clary knew Magnus's words were supposed to be positive and somewhat encouraging but she couldn't help but freeze and take in a sharp breath at Magnus's comment. Deep down inside Clary _knew_ that Magnus was right and that his words weren't intended to hurt her, but the rest of Clary ignored that tiny voice of common since because no matter what anyone said Clary would always blame herself for what had happened three years ago. No else did, in fact everyone had told her that it wasn't her fault, but no matter what anyone said Clary couldn't shake the fact that she was the reason behind the accident, she was the reason her family was broken, and she was the reason her father suffered from a broken heart. It was all her fault, so why should she move on with her life? Yes, she had stopped crying every day. Yes, she had stopped thinking about them every second of every minute of every hour of every day. Yes, she had gone on living her life and was able to get through the day and seem relatively happy. But the one thing she had never been able to do, and may never be able to do, was stop blaming herself and completely and fully _move on_.

"Clary." Magnus said, his voice a bit hesitant and worried. Clary closed her eyes for a second and took a deep breath before looking at her friend. Apparently she didn't hide the emotions fighting inside of her as well as she thought she had because once Magnus saw her face his frown deepened. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, Mags."

"Don't lie to me, something's wrong."

"Nothing's wrong. I just remembered I have homework I forgot in my locker so I am going to go to the library real quick." Clary lied. She really didn't want Magnus to know how much his words had affected her. Not because she wanted to hide her feelings from her friend, but because it made her feel weak, and she hated feeling weak.

Standing up to leave, Clary shoved her untouched applesauce into her brown paper sack, not caring that she hadn't ate anything that day and that she was wasting food. With a sigh, Clary turned to leave, but before she could even take her first step Magnus's hand flew out and grabbed her wrist.

"Clary." Magnus said, his eyes searching hers for the truth. It was obvious not only in his voice, but how he was looking at her that he didn't really believe her. Magnus knew something was wrong, just like he always did, but Clary just couldn't bring herself to admit that she still hadn't stopped blaming herself. Partially because she didn't want to trouble her friend when he was already worried enough about her and partly because she didn't want to have to listen to a well know lecture from Magnus about how she couldn't blame herself, stuff happens, it wasn't her fault, blah blah blah. It was all the same and it didn't matter what anyone said because it was her fault.

Shaking her head before she started to through another pity party for herself, Clary forced a smile onto her face and cocked her head to the side. "Really, I'm fine. I just need to think a little bit. That and I really do have an assignment I forgot to take home over the weekend." When Magnus didn't let go of Clary she added, "I promised you, didn't I? I said I would tell you if something was wrong. Well nothing is wrong, beside the fact that I have unfinished homework."

Magnus kept his grip around her wrist for a few more seconds before nodding his head and letting her go. Clary smiled at her friend a little bit and then left. As she walked out of the doors she threw away her lunch, not caring that she hadn't had breakfast that morning.

…..

…

…..

Jace was far enough away from his normal lunch table that he hadn't been noticed yet, but he was close enough to Clary and Magnus to pick up the tail end of their conversation.

"Look, this week is going to be rough and your dad will probably be having a rough time. So please just promise me you will be careful and call or text me if anything happens. And I do mean _anything._" Magnus told Clary, his voice an odd mixture of concern and determination. Jace frowned a little.

"Fine. I promise." Clary responded after a few seconds.

Some kids at the table closest to Jace started to yell and laugh and there was the sound of someone falling out of their chair, causing Jace to miss how Magnus responded. Jace kept himself from glaring at the people occupying the table and took a tentative step closer to where Magnus and Clary were sitting.

"It's been three years. It's time you moved on in your life." Magnus was saying as Jace came within hearing distance again. Jace had no clue what they were talking about but it peeked his interest, and for some strange reason whatever it was he wanted to know.

Clary didn't say anything and this seemed to bother Magnus because after almost a minute of silence Magnus said Clary's name in a very worried and hesitant tone and then asked, "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, Mags" Clary said softly. Jace wasn't sure, but he felt like she was lying.

"Don't lie to me, something's wrong." Magnus retorted obviously worried for some reason.

Jace didn't get to hear if Clary replied or not because of the kid who fell out of his chair earlier tipped his friend out of his chair and there was a loud clatter as the kid fell out and the chair hit the ground. The others at the table all laughed and it took every ounce of Jace's self-control to not snap at the idiots. When Jace trained his attention back onto Magnus and Clary he saw that Clary had stood up and Magnus had stopped her by grabbing her wrist. From his angle he saw Clary put on a smile, one that was obviously very fake and then before he could even get halfway to the table saw her walk away in the other direction and eventually out of the cafeteria doors.

Jace sat down in the seat Clary had just previously occupied and look at Magnus. It took the sparkle teen a few seconds to realize Jace was even there because he was staring after Clary very intently. When Magnus finally did look at Jace his eyes seemed to harden for a split second and then changed to a cautious look. His expression changed so fast that Jace wasn't sure if he hadn't imagined that hard look for a few seconds.

"What's up with Clary?" Jace asks, trying to seem nonchalant about the whole thing.

Magnus continued to give Jace a somewhat guarded look before he sighed and ran his hand down his face. "Nothing really, just Clary being her normal stoic self."

Jace frowned in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Look, there are things you do not know about Clary, a lot of things actually, and it isn't my place to tell you all of the little secrets of her life. If Clary wants to tell you, she will, but that doesn't mean I'm against pounding you into the ground if you give her a hard time or do or say anything that will cause her harm. Understood?"

Jace was taken aback a little by the abrupt change in subject and by the tone in Magnus's voice. Usually if someone had threatened Jace he would have gotten mad and then threatened the other person back, but the fact that this was Magnus kept Jace from getting angry. It didn't however do anything but stir up his curiosity of what else Clary was hiding from him.

"Understood." Jace nodded. Then after a few seconds of silence, "She told me about Jonathan."

This rewarded Jace with a startled Magnus as he snapped his head back to Jace, eyes wide.

"She did?"  
"Yeah, she told me about him Saturday. She was getting ready to head home from painting the back drops for the dance and I had stopped by to grab homework I left out of my locker and I ran into her. We talked a little bit and somehow she ended up telling be about her brother and showing me the tribute case."

"She told you about Jon."

"Didn't I just go over this? Yes, she told me about her superstar brother."

Magnus gave Jace another odd look and Jace had to keep himself from sighing because he didn't appreciate the fact that Magnus was completely unreadable at the moment.

"Then you know what this week is." Magnus stated. Jace frowned a little and shook his head slowly. This caused Magnus to sigh. "Did you even pay attention when she showed you the case?"

When Jace didn't respond Magnus shook his head a little. "Her brother died on Halloween."

Jace's eyes widened a little at what Magnus had just revealed and Jace mentally wanted to kick himself for not paying more attention to the dates on the plaque. How could he not have noticed?

"That's why she didn't want to go to the dance." Jace said, everything was finally starting to make a little bit of sense.

"Yeah, needless to say she isn't the biggest fan of the holiday anymore."

Jace didn't say anything in response; he merely sat there and thought about everything he had learned over the last three days. Clary had a brother, named Jonathan, who had died three years ago on Halloween. It wasn't much, and it most definitely didn't answer half of the questions that Jace had, but it was a start. He understood a little better now why family was such a sore subject with Clary, but he still wanted to know what had happened to her mom and what was up with her dad. Jace didn't know why, but he felt like there was more to Clary's dad than him just being an overprotective parent that also happened to be a cop. There were other questions he had as well, such as the burn she had had on her leg and the bandage that had been on her arm a couple weeks ago. Clary said she was a klutz but other than her running into him a few times he hadn't notice her being a klutz at all, especially in gym, turned out she was a decent athlete. Jace had a suspicion that the random injuries that Clary would get weren't accidents, but he wasn't for sure and he definitely hoped he wasn't right.

Looking up at Magnus, Jace was about to ask him a question right as the bell rang. Before Jace could even get any words out Magnus stood up and took a couple steps away before stopping and looking back at Jace over his shoulder.

"Jace, just don't make things worse." Magnus's voice was dead serious and even though his eyes were a little guarded Jace could see the tinge of worry that they held.

Jace didn't even get the chance to respond because as soon as the words had left Magnus's lips he had turned back around and started walking away again. Granted Jace had no idea how he would have responded even if Magnus had given him the chance to say anything at all. Jace continued to just sit at the table until he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking up, he saw his brother's blue eyes looking down worriedly at him.

"You alright?" Alec asked him.

Jace nodded and forced a smile onto his face. "Yeah, I guess I just zoned out."

Alec studied him for a few moments before nodding his head. "Well, we better get going, unless you want to be late for class that is."

Jace acted as if he was thinking about it. "Well, I haven't been doing a good job of not making it to class on time so far."

Alec gave him a look and shook his head as he started for the door. Jace followed suit.

Jace get the chance to talk to Clary the rest of the day, not even during gym. Part of that was due to the fact that one of them seemed to have a match when the other didn't and the part was due to the fact that the short five minutes they had before the bell rang Sebastian had been talking to her and Jace wasn't about to force himself to be around that jerk more than necessary.

…..

…

…..

Clary had been looking at the clock the entire hour during her art class. Normally she didn't want the class to end because it was her favorite class and art had always been a sort of escape for her. But today was different, today she was so anxious for school just to be done so she could talk to Jace. She hadn't had the chance to talk to him at all that day and she had finally decided to see if he was okay with postponing until tomorrow that way she could ask her father about it at dinner and hope he said yes.

Clary had already cleaned up her area for the day and was bouncing her knee as she waited for the bell to ring. When the bell finally did go off Clary grabbed her bag and was on her feet in a second. She felt a little bad for not waiting for Magnus, but she hoped he would understand. Since she had walked as fast as she could without running, Clary had gotten to her locker in almost half the time. As quick as she could she grabbed what homework she had and started to close her locker when a piece of paper fell onto the floor. Picking it up, Clary noticed that it had her name on it in a surprisingly neat hand writing that she knew. Opening the note she scanned it quickly:

Clary, I will meet you at the doors to the parking lot by the gym as soon as school it out.

~Jace

Hitching her bag up a little more onto her shoulder, Clary made sure her locker was locked and made her way down the hall to the gym. The seconds she saw the doors that led to the parking lot Clary had to force herself to not flat out run to them. Once there she looked around impatiently, Clary really just wanted to talk to Jace and be done with it. Clary was edgy, in fact when she finally spotted Jace's curly golden hair in the crowd she had to keep her feet planted in their spot not to rush to him.

"Hey, Clary." Jace said when he was finally standing in front of her with an easy going smile on his face.

"Jace," Clary started but stopped when his laid back posture seemed to tense up a little bit and his eyes lost some of their light as he analyzed her.

"What's up?" He asked, his eye brows pulling into a frown.

"It's just. . . Well you see. . . I uh. . ." Clary stumbled over her words, not knowing what to say. She could see the concern written on Jace's face and for some reason unknown to her it bothered her.

"Clary." Jace said, his eyes encouraging her to continue when she didn't say anything.

Clary sighed a little. Perhaps Jace could come over. As long as he was gone before he father got home and she had supper done he would never know. She started to fidget a little as she thought about it.

"Clary." Jace said again, his eyes looking a little worried.

"Oh, sorry." Clary allowed her lips to pull up very slightly into the smallest hint of a smile. "I was just thinking."

Jace seemed to relax a little at her explanation and nodded. "Alright, but what were you trying to say earlier?"

Clary swallowed as she looked up at him and squeezed her hands behind her back. Could she really take the chance? Was it worth it? Jace really seemed excited to work with her and they had been getting along really well, she didn't want to ruin that now. She also didn't want to disappoint Jace or be an inconvenience. But she also was afraid of what her father would do if he found out that she had had someone over without his knowledge, especially someone he had never met before and was a male. However, even if Clary got in trouble it wasn't like it was going to be anything new, she might as well have a good time while she could. Finally she made up her mind.

Jace was sitting on Clary's bed with his notebook spread across it. Clary had finally allowed herself to just give in and let him come over. She had decided to give him a somewhat half-truth and told him that she had actually forgotten to tell her father about the study date and had asked if he could park a few houses away from hers and be gone before her father came home, if it wasn't too much trouble. Jace had agreed with a smile and made a joke about her being a rebel. Clary had merely rolled her eyes at him and told him he could follow her home.

"Well it says here that the ability to fold your tongue is recessive." Jace said as he started to make a chart.

"So, did you get the dominant or recessive gene for that?" Clary asked, writing down her own chart. As far as she could remember her father couldn't roll his tongue, but her mother could. She remembered when she was little they would all be in the kitchen making breakfast and they would do silly things like whistling a tune or folding and rolling their tongues. Clary could only toll her tongue, and even that had taken practice, but both her mother and Jonathan had been able to fold their tongue and twist it to the side and several other weird things. Valentine had always been in the same boat as her but had always tried with the rest of them.

"Recessive." Jace responded before showing her until he couldn't suppress the smile that spread across his lips any longer.

"I see you have a very talented tongue." Clary laughed, until she realized what she had just said and to who. Her laugh turned into an embarrassed chuckle as her face turned red.

"Yes I do, actually." Jace said laughing a little. Clary couldn't tell if he was being serious or if he was teasing her a little.

"So, dark eyes are dominant." Clary squeaked a little, changing the subject. She was still looking down at her homework.

"I take it your mother had light colored eyes." Jace said, a little softly.

"Yea, my eyes are the same color as hers. My brother had dark eyes like my father." Clary smiled a little, but she still refused to look up.

"My father had blue eyes, and my mother had light brown eyes." Jace said with an almost sad tone of voice Clary didn't understand.

"I guess that's just another thing were you are dominant and I'm recessive." Clary replied, not knowing how to react to Jace's tone.

"Yep, just proves how awesome I am." Jace's usual cocky self was back. Clary couldn't help but roll her eyes. "So, hair color."

"Let's see." Clary said as she flipped some pages in the book she had borrowed from the library. "It says that dark hair is dominant over the other hair colors and that all of the others are dominant over red, but red is just blond hair with a mutation, so I guess that makes since."

"So you are doubly recessive then." Jace remarked.

Clary scoffed a little as she finally looked back up at him. "That's not even a term. It just means that my having red hair wasn't a very likely possibility. I probably should have had blonde hair like my dad or something."

Jace scrunched up his nose a little. "I cannot imagine you as a blonde. That would just be too weird, besides, your red hair looks really pretty."

Clary's eyes widened in surprise at Jace's words and this time it seemed to be Jace's turn to blush a little as he realized what he had just admitted.

"Anyways," he said as he cleared his throat a little, "My hair is co-dominant I think."

Clary looked at Jace in confusion. "But, both Isabelle and Alec have dark hair."

Jace's face whitened a little at the comment, but before he could open his mouth to say anything Clary raised her hand to keep him quiet as she heard the clock downstairs toll out six. Clary's heart immediately dropped to her stomach and simultaneously started to race.

Clary cursed under her breath but Jace seemed to still hear her as his eyes widened a little. She had to force herself to keep from panicking. Grabbing her phone, she unlocked it to see that it was indeed 6:00 P.M. and the clock downstairs wasn't fast. With it being a Monday, her father should be home within the next twenty minutes, thirty if she was lucky. She wanted to face palm herself for not paying more attention to the time.

"Clary." Jace said, his voice bringing her out of her thoughts and helping her panic to ebb just a little. Clary looked up at him to see that his was frowning at her a little and seemed confused. "What's wrong?"

Clary almost wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the question, because at that point in time what wasn't wrong, but she didn't. "My father is going to be home in the next," she looked at her phone again, "eighteen minutes."

Jace's face seemed to pale a little. "Oh."

"Look, I have to go downstairs and make supper really quickly, so if you-" Clary stopped when she heard a car pull into the drive way. Her heart stopped for a second and Clary went cold. It couldn't be. How could her father already be home?

"Clary."

"Look, just. . . just stay here. Don't move around too much and don't make a sound. If you hear footsteps coming up the stairs and it doesn't sound like me just hide in the closet, alright? And please, no matter what you hear don't you dare come out of this room." Clary said quickly as she jumped off her bed and sprinted to her door, not giving Jace the chance to respond or even agree to what she had just told him to do.

The second she was out of her room she closed her door and made her way down the stairs as fast as she could. She could her hear father opening the door as she pulled out a pot from under the stove and some canned soup from a nearby cabinet. Clary was quick to dump the large can of tomato soup into the pan and turn on the burner. No longer had she tossed the can in the trash, and thankfully making it, did she hear the slam of the front door and her father's heavy footsteps coming into the kitchen.

Turning to face him, Clary was even more dismayed to see that his eyes were already a little red. Apparently she wouldn't be catching a break.

"Clarissa," Valentine said, his voice hard, but not yet slurred from drinking. "I see you still aren't done with supper."

"I'm sorry. I wasn't expecting you to be home early toda-" She started but didn't get to finish when she felt the sting of her father's hand across her cheek.

"Don't give me any lip. How hard is it to have dinner cooked by the time I walk through that door? It's not like you have anything to do after school. It's not like you work all day." Her father bellowed.

Clary bit her lip, she hated when he was like this. She hated that he let his anger get the best of him, she hated that he took it out on her, and she hated that no matter what she did she was never good enough, even when he was sober. But most of all, she hated that there was nothing she could do about it and that in the end it was her own fault. Clary knew that she shouldn't blame herself and that it wasn't healthy, but she just couldn't help it. No matter what she did, she just couldn't help but blame herself for what had happened three years ago and what was happening now. Clary hated feeling weak, she hated feeling like there was absolutely nothing she could do, but in the end that was exactly how things were. She couldn't fight back and there really wasn't anything that Clary could do to help her father. Every fiber of her being hated it, but it was how things were.

"I know. I'm sorry." Clary said, trying to appease her father.

It didn't seem to work because the next thing Clary knew her father had grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her in a painful position. It took all of her will power to not whimper a little.

"You stupid little wretch." Valentine sneered at her before he shoved her away from him and Clary tried to brace herself against the stove only to get her hand too close to the burner. Breathing in sharply, Clary pulled her hand to her chest instantly. Biting her lip against the pain, she looked at her right hand and was a relieved that her skin was only a little red and that the burn wasn't that bad.

Her relief was short lived because the next second she saw something fly by her head out of her peripheral vision and then a second later the crash of glass as it shattered against the wall. Clary closed her eyes for a few seconds and took in a deep breath, trying to prepare herself for whatever was to come and praying that Jace wouldn't hear anything and that if he did that he would do as she told him and stayed in her room.

Valentine was yelling at her again, but she couldn't focus enough to actually hear the words that were coming out of his mouth. Clary saw her father's eyes harden and his hands curl into tight fists at his side before he chucked another bottle at her. Ducking just in time, Clary turned a little and covered her head as the bottle crashed against the cabinet now to her left as the glass fell onto the counter top and ground beside her. Not wanting to get into even more trouble later, Clary turned off the soup that was on the stove and quickly placed the lid on top. It was a slightly silly thing to worry about, but she wasn't about to hear the wrath about her father not having supper once he was done with his little tirade.

Abruptly, Clary felt her arm being held in a very tight grasp and then being shoved against the island in the middle of the kitchen, the sharp edges of the counter top biting into her skin. Then Clary could feel her father grab a handful of her curly hair into his large hand and she bit her lip as he pulled her out of the kitchen and then flung her against the hallway wall. Once again Clary tried to brace herself, just for her right hand to take all of the weight as she crashed against the wall. Gasping, Clary hugged her burned hand as pain shot up through it, not only from the pain of her sensitive skin, but also from the sharp pain that was stemming from her wrist.

It wasn't long before her father grabbed her newly injured wrist and tugged her up, off the ground. Clary bit her lip again to keep from crying out as tears started to whelm up in her eyes.

"You are such an ungrateful little bitch." Valentine jeered. Not about to cower in front of her father Clary attempted to straighten her back a little, only for it to be resulted in her father shoving her against the wall and kneeing her in the stomach, knocking the air out of her lungs. Clary doubled over in an attempt to not only protect herself but to try to breath as well. Before she could even attempt to get oxygen into her lungs she felt the force of her father's fist against her lower jaw and the power of the hit sent her to the ground, her right shoulder and hip taking the full force of the fall. Clary had just managed to curl herself into a ball when she felt the first kick hit her shins. Forcing her back into the wall, Clary made it as impossible as she could for her father to land a solid kick to her torso.

After a few minutes Valentine stopped and Clary tensed as she waited for what he was going to do next, when nothing happened she relaxed just a little and dared to look up just enough to see where her father was. The instant she did, she realized she had made a mistake because her father had a very hard, dangerous look in his eyes and Clary could feel her body growing cold in fear. She didn't even have time to try to move when her father once again grabbed a handful of her hair and started to drag her across the floor and back into the kitchen. On instinct clary reached up to her father's wrist to try and relieve the screaming of her scalp. Her father stopped once they were in the kitchen, and cursing some more at Clary he slammed her head against the cabinet under the sink before letting go and walking into the living room after he had grabbed more beer.

Clary just lied were she was. Her head ached and her shoulder and hip where screaming in pain along with her sprung wrist and burned hand. She had a feeling gym would not be fun the next day, but at least she was left handed. Finally after several minutes had gone by, she forced herself onto her knees and then pulled herself into a standing position with the help of the counter. Looking around the kitchen, Clary sighed as she realized she would have to clean up the broken glass and spilled bear before she could retreat to her room. It took Clary longer than she would have liked to clean up all the glass and to safely dispose of it and then mop up the alcohol. As soon as she was done she slipped into the downstairs bathroom that was in the hallway. It only had a toilet, sink, and mirror, but that was all she needed.

Looking in the mirror she saw that her cheek and chin was already starting to bruise a little, but there was nothing she could do about that. Thankfully there was no blood, so she didn't have to worry about cleaning any open wounds. She still had some burn ointment in her bedroom that she could use for her hand. Deciding she really needed some Tylenol for her headache she left the bathroom and made her way upstairs as quietly as she could. The moment her hand touched the knob to her door she froze.

_ Jace._

Jace was still in her room. Closing her eyes tightly for a few seconds she rested her forehead against the door. There was no way Jace wouldn't be able to figure out the truth now. Things were falling apart, her life was falling apart. Clary had done everything she could to keep her life at home separate and a secret from the rest of her life, and now all of that was changing. Taking a deep breath, Clary prepared herself as best as she could and opened the door.

…..

…

…..

The second the clock started to toll six and Clary's face went pale and her body went rigid, Jace could tell that something was wrong. He could also tell that she was trying to stay calm until the sound of a car pulled into the driveway and her head snapped to the door once again.

"Look, just. . . just stay here. Don't move around too much and don't make a sound. If you hear footsteps coming up the stairs and it doesn't sound like me just hide in the closet, alright? And please, no matter what you hear don't you dare come out of this room." Clary told me, her face still pale and her hands visible shaking a little.

Jace wasn't sure if she noticed or not, but he was too shocked and confused by her words to ask her about it. Then once the full meaning of the words sunk in Jace's heart sunk a little and he was about to ask what she meant, but before he could even utter a word she was out the door and a few moments later he could hear the slamming of the front door. To Jace's surprise, he stayed wear he was, too afraid to make a sound. Normally he wouldn't have done what Clary had told him in that situation, but she had seemed so. . . terrified that he couldn't bring himself to go against what she had told him to do.

It wasn't long before Jace heard what sounded like yelling and then glass breaking. There was more yelling and more glass and Jace couldn't help the frown that made its way onto his face. There were a few seconds of silence and then a thudding sound, Jace couldn't imagine what could have happened to make such sound but at the same time he had a fairly decent idea and it made him sick to his stomach. Ignoring, slightly, what Clary had told him he quietly slipped off the bed and put his ear to the floor to try to hear what was happening better. There was an almost silence for a few minutes, it was one of those silences where Jace couldn't hear what was happening but he knew something was, then there was more yelling. A minute later the television came on and Jace pulled himself back onto Clary's bed, his head swimming with what he had just learned.

Jace couldn't help but constantly look at his phone to see how much time had gone by as he waited for Clary to come back into her room. He wanted so much to just go down stairs and find her and make sure she was okay, but he had seen the conviction in Clary's eyes when she had told him to stay put and he didn't want to go against what she had just said, that and deep down he knew it would be a very bad idea to go downstairs. After what seemed like hours, but had only been about half an hour Jace could the light footsteps of Clary as she made her way up the stairs and to the door. Jace could feel his body tense and it tensed even more when he realized she had stopped at the door but hadn't opened it yet, and for some reason that made him even more nervous.

Finally Clary opened the door and, hesitantly, turned on the light. Jace sucked in his breath when he saw her. She was holding her right wrist a little and her head was down, allowing her hair to cover her face a little, but Jace could still tell that she wasn't okay.

"Clary," Jace said softly, just loud enough for her to hear and no one else.

Clary didn't look up at him but she did make her way closer to the bed. Jace cautiously stood up and made his way too her and grabbed her shoulders. Clary flinched a little at his touch and Jace's heart sunk a little.

"Clary," he whispered, his voice cracking a little he was so worried. When she didn't say anything or even look up at him he gently tucked his hand under her chin and lifted her head up so he could look at her. When he did and he saw the bruises on her face that hadn't been there an hour ago and the look in her eyes, a look of defeat and shame, Jace's head spun. Part of him was so angry he wanted to march down those stairs right now and beat up the man who had done this to her and the other part of him was so devastated for some unknown reason that he just wanted to hug her and never let her go.

"You have to go, Jace." Clary finally said, looking over her shoulder a little towards the door.

Jace was hurt that she would say such a thing and started to protest but she cut him off.

"No, you don't understand. You have to get out of here. I never know what he's going to do and what he will be like when he's like this. If he comes up here and catches you. . . who knows what would happen. I'll be fine. I'm always fine, besides it's not even that bad." Clary told him, not an ounce of pain in her voice, only concern for him. Jace felt a silent fury start to build up in him at her words, at the fact that she was _use_ to this and claimed that she was fine when obviously she wasn't. Once again Jace was torn because part of him wanted to just tell her that no, she wasn't alright and the other part of him wanted to know what else had happened to her for her to just brush off the bruises and whatever injuries she had.

"Can't I just stay a few more minutes to help you?" Jace asked, his eyes all but pleading with her.

Clary smiled at him a little and her eyes softened slightly. It nearly took his breath away that she could still smile. "No, I know how to take care of myself, Jace."

"But-"

"Jace," her voice stern, "you need to get out of my house and to your car now, while he's currently preoccupied and not in a completely sour mood."

Jace just stared at Clary for a few seconds before silently sighing in defeat and nodded his head.

Clary sighed in relief and he could almost visible she her relax a little. Once again Jace was stunned by how she was so worried for him and didn't seem worried at all about herself, and then the moment that feeling settled in he was angry for her being in the position to begin with, and then finally he was both amazed that she was so strong and composed and irate that she could so easily brush something like this off. Jace couldn't remember the last time he had felt so many conflicting emotions and it was almost enough to make his dizzy.

"Alright," Clary said as she walked across her room to the window. "There is a tree outside my window and there is a branch close enough you can reach out and grab it, from there you will be able to climb down the tree. Thankfully the tree isn't visisble from the living room or the kitchen so my father won't see you as you climb down. But once you are on the ground you will have to go to the north side of the fence and hop over it. My neighbors are almost never home, so don't worry about getting spotted or in trouble. From there you can leave go to the road and go to your car." Clary turned around to face him after she had opened the window and looked at him.

"Got it?"

"Yes, tree, north fence, car. I got it." Jace replied, trying to lighten the mood a little. "It'll be like I'm James Bound or Mr. Smith from Mr. and Mrs. Smith."

This rewarded Jace with an eye roll from Clary and Jace smiled a little bit. Still not wanting to leave Clary alone Jace didn't hurry too much as he gathered his homework together and shoved it back into his book bag. Pulling his bag onto his back he looked at Clary as she stood between the window and the door.

"Clary," Jace started but then stopped when he saw her expression as she look from the door to him.

"Jace," Clary's voice was quiet and a little hesitant. "Promise me you won't tell anyone about this."

Jace opened his mouth to protest, but Clary held up her hand and her eyes became more determined. "You have to promise. Only Magnus knows and I can't have the others finding out."

"But-"

"No, Jace. Promise. If you have to know all the details, fine, I will tell you. But not right now, right now you need to get out of here. "

Jace looked Clary in the eyes and saw that she was next to pleading with him and he couldn't say no when her emerald eyes were staring at him the way they were. Finally, Jace nodded and he started towards the window. But before he could even place his hands on the window he felt Clary's frail arms wrap around him. Jace stiffened for a minute before relaxing and turning so he could wrap his arms around Clary. He was surprised by how small and delicate she was, wrapped in his arms, and he was afraid that if he hugged her too hard he may break her. After what seemed like forever and yet at the same time not nearly long enough, Clary pulled back and looked up at him.

"Thank you." She said softly. Jace swallowed and nodded his head a little.

"I'll talk to you tomorrow." He said looking at her for a few more seconds before climbing out of the window and onto the tree. Once he had a form hold onto the branch he swiftly made his way down the tree and couldn't help but wonder how Clary managed to do this, because she was a good head shorter than he was and even some of the branches were a bit tricky for him. Granted, Clary hadn't come right out and told him she had snuck out of the house by use of the tree, but it was obvious by the precise directions she had given Jace that she had. She didn't cease to amaze him.

Once his feet were firmly on the ground he looked up to see Clary leaning out of the window, making sure he reached the ground safely. Jace was just about to turn and make a run for the fence when he saw her eyes widen a little and she snapped her head behind her before snapping it back to him. Jace could feel that sick feeling coming back as he looked at her. He looked at her in a way to ask what was wrong.

_Go._ Clary mouthed before shutting the window and spinning around. Jace made a dash for the fence even though every fiber of his being was yelling at him not to, that he needed to go back into the house and either defend Clary or take her with him. But he didn't, because he knew that it wouldn't make things any better, at least not right then it wouldn't. Pausing at the fence after he had vaulted himself over it he looked back at Clary's window to see that she had closed the curtains, but even with the curtains he could see Clary's small shadow, and the larger one beside her. Jace froze for a second and squeezed his hands into fists so tight that his nails cut into the palm of his hand. Still feeling sick to his stomach he forced his legs to move away from the house and towards the street and his car.

When he finally got into his car he just sat there. Not able leave yet, let alone drive. Jace had had suspicions that Clary's injuries weren't accidents, but he hadn't thought her father was the cause. Never in a million years would he have thought of such a thing. Suddenly Jace regretted wanting answers, because he had gotten them and they weren't what he was expecting. Eventually Jace managed to pull himself together enough to start his car and drive home, but before he pulled away from the curb he promised himself that he was going to do everything possible to protect Clary, rather she wanted it or not.

**Finally! When I started this story the scenes from when Clary realizes she lost track of time until Jace is out of the house is what I have been working up to. So, now I have no idea where I'm going with this story. I guess we'll just see were the wind takes me. Granted if any of you have any ideas I will be glad to take them into consideration. **

**But, Jace now knows the truth and he is determined to protect her, even if he doesn't know how he is going to do so. I hope this chapter made up for the fact it took so long. It was 14 pages long by the time I was done, which is crazy. And well, Jace knows the truth now. I also realized in my past chapters there were several stupid little mistakes and errors and I am really sorry for that. Usually I am so excited to finish a chapter that I don't take enough time to thoroughly proof read and edit them when I'm done, but I will try harder from now on to make sure there aren't any more errors, granted that may mean it takes a little longer for me to post new chapter. Also, if there are any I missed in this chapter I am deeply sorry, especially in the last section in Jace's point of view. Once again I was just so happy to have this chapter, especially this one, done that I couldn't wait to post it so you guys could read it! Lots of love and thank you for the patience. **


	14. Aftermath

Chapter 12

**So… This chapter may bounce back and forth around pov's a little and it didn't completely go how I wanted, but here you go!**

Clary's back was against the wall of her shower, her knees to her chest. She had her right arm wrapped carefully around her shins and her left elbow rested on her knees, her head in her uninjured hand. Her head was spinning with thoughts as the water from her shower head pelted her body. What had she been thinking? Actually, she hadn't been thinking at all, not really. Because if she had been thinking she wouldn't have screwed up as much as she had. She should have remembered to ask her father if Jace could come over, but she hadn't. Heck, Cary had even managed to talk herself into believing that Jace could still come over and everything would go peachy. How could she have been so stupid to not pay more attention to the time? Even more so, how could she have actually thought that luck would be on her side for once and her evening wouldn't be a complete catastrophe?

With a sigh Clary leaned her head back against the wall and suddenly realized that the water was cold, not the just-ran-out-of-warm-water-cold, but the, it's-been-cold-for -ten-minutes- cold. Shivering a little Clary shook her head and forced her stiff body to stand. Turning off the water, she got out and dried off. After looking over her injuries and figuring out the best way to hide them the next day she got dressed and made her way to her bed, where she collapsed and gingerly touched her the cut on her side. Closing her eyes, Clary allowed herself to think back to just a couple hours earlier.

_She was leaning out over the window watching Jace climb down the tree, wanting to make sure he reached the ground safely. Jace's feet had just touched the ground when Clary heard her father's voice and heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. Snapping her head towards her door and then back to Jace when she realized the footsteps were now making their way toward her room. Looking back down out Jace she saw his eyes look at her with worry. Not wanting him to get caught when he was so close to getting away she mouthed at him to go, for a moment Clary didn't think he was going to leave but then he was sprinting across the lawn. Clary was quick to close her window and then draw the curtain, allowing herself one more glance to see that Jace was on the other side of the fence. Valentine came barging into her room the moment she turned around and Clary was surprised he had made it up the stairs with as blood shot as her father's eyes were. _

_ "Are you deaf, girl?" Her father shouted at her, his face red with anger. "I've been calling you for the last five minutes." _

_ Clary gulped. She hadn't heard her father; she'd been too busy worrying about getting Jace out of the house undetected. Before Clary could even think about replying Valentine had grabbed her right wrist in a painfully tight grasp and she couldn't help the sharp intake of air as pain shot up her arm. _

_ "Answer me when I'm talking to you, girl." _

_ "I- I'm sorry. I didn't hear you." Clary stuttered._

_ Valentine just sneered out her and started to yell at her some more, the majority of it consisting of profane words. As he did so, he roughly pulled her closer to him before shoving her into her dresser, her side catching the sharp corner hard enough to break her skin. Clary didn't have time to recover before her father grabbed a fistful of her shirt and pulled her back up just to glare at her and then toss her to the side where her back collided with her bookshelf hard enough to knock some of its contents down onto her. Trying to shield herself, Clary shot her arms up to keep the avalanche of books and random keepsakes from causing her anymore harm. Seeming appeased enough, Clary's father turned on his heel and stalked out of her room, slamming the door behind him before he made his way back downstairs._

Clary didn't know how long she had sat on the ground before she had forced herself to get up and clean up the mess and then go and take a shower. It seemed like that's all Clary did anymore, was sit wherever her father left her until she had stored up enough energy to move, just for her to clean up his mess and then tend to her own wounds. It was a tiring, repetitive way to live life.

Grimacing a little as she tried to lie on her side, Clary shook herself out of her thoughts. Giving up, Clary rolled back onto her back and looked up at the ceiling. Suddenly, Clary realized she should probably text Magnus. She didn't really want to, but she had promised to tell him if anything happened and she was pretty sure tonight classified as 'something'. With a sigh, and some effort, Clary reached for her phone that rested on her nightstand. Once the phone was in her hand she typed in Magnus's number from memory and sent him a message.

Jace knows.

It was a few minutes before Clary's phone vibrated, letting her know Magnus had sent her a message back.

What happened?

Clary suddenly felt completely exhausted at the idea of trying to explain to Magnus everything that had happened.

We'll talk tomorrow. I promise.

With that Clary turned her phone off and allowed herself to fall asleep.

…..

…

…..

Alec was lying on his bed, reading, when his door was slung open a little too roughly. He didn't even have to look to see that it was Jace, his brother never knocked.

"Don't you ever knock?" Alec asked a little disdainfully. He knew it was pointless to even ask Jace the question because the answer was no and Alec knew that Jace wasn't going to pick the habit up anytime soon. Not after nearly eight years of not bothering.

"Alec, do you have Magnus's number?"

"Why?" Alec didn't even bother to look up from his book.

"Do you have it or not?"

Alec didn't know what it was, but something in Jace's voice was . . . off. Marking his place in the book, he sat it down and looked up at his brother. Alec's brows furrowed a little when he saw the intense look on Jace's face, which startled Alec a little. As long as Alec had known Jace, the other boy had almost never shown very much concern for anything, not even when he was hurt. Jace caring about anything enough to get worked up was staggering.

"Yes," Alec answered slowly.

"Can I have it? Actually better yet, can I have his address?" Jace demanded.

Normally Alec would have asked Jace why he cared to have Magnus's address, or even number for that matter, but something told Alec not to question Jace. Half way through the directions Alec got an idea.

"Actually, you know where Clary lives?" Jace gave Alec a 'duh' look and Alec continued. "Magnus doesn't live too far from her." Alec then proceeded to tell Jace how to get to Magnus's from Clary's. The only reason he knew where Clary lived was because Magnus had driven by Clary's house once when Alec had been going to Magnus's and Magnus had needed to stop by Simon's, who only lived a couple blocks away from Clary.

When he was done Jace thanked him and left his room before Alec could even ask him anything. Sighing, Alec opened his book back up and continued to read, the entire time he couldn't help shake a feeling that something was up.

…..

…

…..

Staring at his phone in frustration, Magnus tossed it onto his bed and sunk down into his desk chair. He knew something bad was going to happen. Ever since Clary had told him what has happening at home he had been overly paranoid that something was going to happen. Finally something had. He hadn't wanted Clary to go ahead and ask Jace over, but it seems like that was exactly what had happened. Realizing he was too keyed up to sit down, Magnus got up and picked up his cell to reread his text conversation with Clary.

Clary: Jace knows

Magnus: What happened?

Clary: We'll talk tomorrow. I promise.

Magnus had called Clary after that but it had gone straight to voice mail. He had also sent her at least five texts demanding she talk to him right now, but she didn't respond. Knowing Clary she had probably turned off her cell phone right after she had sent her last text. It was infuriating. Even more so because they both knew that he couldn't just go to her house, because even if he did manage to sneak in there was the chance of him getting caught and then things would be even worse.

Magnus ran his hands through his hair roughly in frustration. He really hated that he couldn't help Clary _right now _and that he would have to settle for tomorrow. It was maddening. With a sigh, Magnus decided to try to put it out of his mind for now, because he knew if he didn't he would obsess about it the entire night, so hentossed his phone back onto his bed and started downstairs to get a drink of water.

The house was really quiet because his parents were gone on business for the past week and wouldn't be back for another nine or ten days. Plus, he was an only child, meaning it was just him in the house. Most kids would probably be ecstatic about having a house to themselves for almost two and a half weeks, but Magnus hated the lonely feeling that filled the house. In the past Magnus would have invited Clary and Simon to stay over whenever they wanted, but ever since what had happened three years ago Clary hadn't been able to stay the night anywhere, she could barely go over to someone's house. It had always confused Magnus why, but now he had a pretty good idea. As for Simon, there wasn't really any reason why he couldn't come over. It was just the fact that they felt bad hanging out when Clary couldn't hang out with them.

Magnus was about half way down the stairs when he heard the doorbell go off, followed by an insistent knocking. Frowning, Magnus made his way the rest of the way down the stairs and through the living room to where the front door was. The entire time the person at the door was knocking roughly at the door and occasionally ringing the bell.

Starting to get a little annoyed Magnus yelled, "Hold on, I'm coming," at the door when he was a few feet away.

When Magnus opened the door he was full well ready to yell at the person for being impatient enough to basically assault the door bell, but the words died on his tongue when he saw the blonde headed, golden eyed boy standing in front of him. It wasn't just the fact that Jace was on his doorstep at close to midnight, but the appearance of the boy. His hair was messier than normal and his eyes held an expression that Magnus could only call desperation, which made no since. Jace's mouth was in a grim line instead of his usual half smirk and his face was a little pale. Magnus's heart instantly crashed into the pit of his knotted up stomach.

Jace barged in without being asked as Magnus opened the door a little wider. Normally this would have irritated Magnus, but right now he didn't really care.

"What are you doing here, Jace?" Magnus finally asked. Normally the question would have seemed rude, but Magnus's voice was a mixture of curiosity and concern.

"It's about Clary."

Magnus ran his hand down his face and sighed. "Let's go to my room and talk."

Jace followed Magnus up to his room and the second Magnus shut the door, mostly from habit than the unnecessary fear of someone over hearing, Jace sunk down onto Magnus's bead with his head in his hands. It astonished Magnus that Jace was so shaken up, it also made Magnus feel a little sick. After several minutes, the boy looked up at Magnus.

"How long have you known?"

Magnus didn't need Jace to clarify what he meant, he just knew. "About a week."

Jace looked confused and surprised all at the same time, in any other situation Magnus would have found it funny.

"Look. . . just tell me what happened." Magnus sighed.

Jace nodded. "From the very beginning?" When Magnus nodded Jace continued.

"I left a note in Clary's locker because I hadn't been able to talk to her all day and I needed to know how to get to her house, so I had her meet up with me after school. When I arrived at our meeting spot she appeared to be really nervous and she seemed to have other things on her mind, almost if she was battling with herself for some reason. Eventually she said I could just follow her home but I would have to be gone before six and I had to park a little ways from her house because she had forgotten to tell her father and didn't want to get us in trouble.

"When we got to her house everything was fine. We did our assignment and we didn't get into one of our normal little arguments. It was really nice, being able to talk and not fight with her. But I guess we lost track of time because suddenly the clock downstairs was tolling six and Clary started to panic. I just thought it was because her father was going to yell at her and she would get grounded or something and I felt bad because she had just been ungrounded.

"I was just about to get my stuff together and leave when we heard a car pull into the drive way. Clary started to really panic then and told me to stay in her room until she came back. Then she left and went downstairs and a few minutes later I heard yelling and a little bit of ruckus and then nothing for a long time. When Clary finally came back up she had bruises on her face and she was hugging her right hand to her. I tried to stay so I could help but she ordered me to leave. I tried to talk her into letting me stay but she wouldn't let me. So, as to her instructions, I snuck out of her bedroom window and climbed down the tree. Once I was on the ground I looked back up and she looked worried and mouthed for me to go. Once again I didn't want to, but I did. When I got over the neighbor's fence I looked back and saw another shadow besides Clary's in her room."

Jace sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "Once I was calmed down enough to drive I drove around town for a little while to cool off some more and then went home. I had Alec give me directions to your house."

Magnus nodded and sank down into the desk chair he had previously been occupying. Clary had texted Magnus around ten thirty, and that had almost been an hour ago. Something told Magnus that something bad had happened after Jace had left, but he wouldn't know until he talked to Clary the next day.

"I knew something bad was going to happen. I could feel it." Magnus sighed.

"How could her father do this?" Jace's voice was quiet, but Magnus could hear the anger and disgust that was beneath the shock and concern.

"I don't know. Clary says that he's not always bad, that most days he's _normal _and that it's only when he drinks that he gets. . . aggressive." Magnus didn't know why but he just couldn't get himself to say the word abusive. He didn't know if it was because he had grown up knowing Valentine Morgenstern and knew he was a good man, or at least had been, or if it was because he didn't want to think of that fact that Clary was being hurt.

Jace snorted a little. "How long? How long do you think this has been going on? I mean, Clary seemed to know beforehand what was going to happen and when she came back upstairs she was calm. It was like it didn't even matter that she had just been used as a punching bag for her scum bag of a father."

Magnus tried to ignore the venom in Jace's voice, but it was hard. Magnus still hadn't come to terms yet that a man he used to look up to wasn't man enough to get help.

"I don't honestly know, but I am going to assume close to three years, at least two. I mean, Clary was a cheerleader her freshman year and I never noticed any odd injuries or anything. It wasn't until after she had to quit the squad because of a hurt ankle that I really remember her acting differently or even coming to school with some kind of wound."

"Like what?"

"Well, she's had a few scrapes and bruises, actually I take that back, she hasn't had a _few_, she's had _a lot_. Clary would always have an excuse for them, of course, and all of them were very believable so I never really thought anything about them. At the end of sophomore year she had a broken wrist, her excuse for that one was that she tripped and fell and when she went to catch herself her wrist twisted a little." Magnus stated and then stopped. He now knew the truth behind her broken wrist and he also knew of injuries he had never known of before, but he wasn't sure he wanted to list out everything to Jace.

Jace stayed quiet for a while, as if he was letting everything sink in. Finally he sighed and ran his hands through his hair again. "What do we do now?"

Eyes wide, Magnus just looked at Jace for a few seconds. "What do you mean?"

"I mean we have to tell someone, right? We can't just let this keep happening."

"People wouldn't believe us and even if they did, Clary would deny it." Magnus responded.

"Then we have to convince Clary to go to the authorities on this."

"Not going to happen." Magnus stated. Jace gave him a hard look and Magnus raised his hand. "I already tried to talk to her about it. She doesn't want her father in trouble. Her reasoning is that he just needs help, like AA or anger management with some emotional therapy, if not both. But Valentine being as prideful as he is won't go."

"That doesn't even make since!" Jace exclaimed.

"Yes it does. All Clary has is her father, she doesn't have anyone else, so if her father gets in trouble she won't have anyone. Plus she loves her father, when she was younger she was a complete daddy's girl. In her mind it doesn't matter that he has a drinking problem and because of the drinking problem he was anger issues. Clary still loves him and she believes that if she tells the cops about what's going on then she will be betraying him."

Jace gave Magnus a doubtful look.

"Don't look at me like that. It's true. Clary's told me all of this herself. Well . . . most of it."

"Fine, I keep it to myself for now." Jace sighed reluctantly. Magnus gave him a thankful look. "But, that doesn't mean I'm not talking to her about this. I want to fully understand what's going on and to do that I have to know what it is that Clary's hiding from me."

Magnus nodded. "I'm sure she will. I mean, she's told you about Jonathan, it only makes since that in time she will tell you everything else."

"Yeah." Jace said and then was quiet for several minutes. Magnus didn't know what to say, and the silence was starting to get a little awkward when Jace spoke again. "I just don't understand how she can deal with that at home and then come off as happy and carefree at school. I mean, I could tell something wasn't right, but no one else really seems to suspect anything."

"That's just Clary for you. Her world could be disintegrating and she would still plaster a smile on her face and go on with life. Mostly because she doesn't want others to worry about her and partly just because that's who she is. Life throws bricks at her and she just keeps going. Clary's a fighter, she may be tiny and look helpless, but she's strong and can take care of herself." Magnus wasn't exaggerating at all. Even when they had been younger Clary would stand up for herself. It was a known fact that her brother would come to her aide if needed, but Clary could just as easily take care of herself, and her friends. In fact, there had been many times in middles school when Clary had stood up for not only herself but a friend, usually poor Simon. It was one of the things that peoples respected about Clary; it was also one of the things that Magnus admired most about his best friend. Life had tried it's hardest to ruin Clary and she wouldn't let it, she just kept fighting back and pushing forward.

"That she is." Jace smirked a little, a response that was more Jace-like and that Magnus was comfortable with.

"We should talk at lunch." Magnus said, startling Jace a little as he snapped his head to look at him. "Clary, we should talk to her at lunch."

Jace nodded. "Yeah, I don't want to ask her anything in chemistry, but I don't think I could make it all day without talking to her, especially since I didn't get the chance before I had to leave."

"Thank you." Magnus said softly, killing the silence that had once again settled around them. Jace gave him a puzzled look. "Thank you for wanting to help Clary, and not pushing her."

Jace just nodded but Magnus was pleased enough with the response. He didn't know why or how, but Magnus has this feeling that Jace was going to play an important role in Clary's life. There was also the thought that maybe Jace would be the one to finally help Clary move on in life and to help her just _live_ again. The only evidence of any of it being a ruse was the fact that Jace seemed generally concerned and worried about Clary. Magnus also knew that Jace had the reputation of being a complete player and he didn't want the golden haired boy hurting Clary, but if Jace could help Clary then Magnus was willing to look past all of his negatives and focus on the fact that Jace may just be Clary's saving grace.

**Another chapter done! Thank goodness. Hoped you enjoyed it. So until next time!**


	15. Building Trust

Chapter 13

**I know, I know, I'm a terrible person for not updating, but here's the next chapter! Finally. **

**And just to through this out there, Cassandra Clare owns the characters and the Mortal Instruments and Good Charlotte own the song Hold On from which I got the idea for the title. The story in and of itself however is indeed mine **** Now I am going to go hide behind something, enjoy!**

Clary sifted uncomfortably on her feet as she stood beside her car in the school's parking lot. She had to force herself from touching her face where she knew her bruises from last night were. Logically Clary knew for a fact that no one could see the blue tint to her skin because she had made sure to fix her make up just right, but a tiny bit of her was still afraid that someone might say something. Clary also had her wrist wrapped in an ace bandage and thankfully her burned hand no longer hurt and was only slightly pink. Her entire right side was sore, and bruised as well, but that was easy to hide. The tricky part was going to be gym, but she had already decided that she wouldn't take the spaghetti strap she had on under her Supernatural tee off that way no one would get a glimpse of her side.

Taking a deep breath, Clary made her way towards the school. She made it to her locker and to class without spotting any of her friends, which she found odd. But she wasn't about to worry about it too much, not when that included her not running into Jace or Magnus. Today was going to be a long day and tomorrow even longer.

Clary laid her head down on her desk the minute she sat down. She was vaguely aware of Alec sitting down beside her but didn't care enough to really pay that much attention to him. In fact, it took all her will power to lift her head off her desk when class started. Thankfully they ended up watching a movie so Clary didn't have to try to focus too much on class. In all honesty, she was too worried about how her next class or even lunch was going to go. Clary didn't know what to except from Jace and Magnus and she wasn't entirely sure she was ready to deal with Jace. Magnus sure, she had had a little time to work up to telling her friend the truth, Jace however was a completely different story. He had just found out, on his own, and she hadn't known him for years. Heck, she had hardly known him for weeks.

Suddenly Clary felt something jab her in the ankle and Clary jerked a little and turned to look at Alec, who was nudging her ankle repeatedly. Alec had a concerned look on her face and Clary immediately wanted to kick herself. In all of her worrying about Jace, Clary had completely forgotten about the other Lightwood boy, who, coincidently, was just as perceptive. Forcing a weak smile onto her face Clary tilted her head to the side a little; a way of asking what was up.

Alec frowned but very discretely passed her a note. Clary sighed a little and unfolded the piece of paper and read Alec's question about if she was okay. Closing her eyes for a second, she tried to center herself. She didn't know why, but for some reason Clary just couldn't quiet her mind or push all of her troublesome thoughts away.

Clary quickly scribbled that she was fine, just tired and passed the note back to Alec. The dark haired boy gave her a doubtful look but he seemed satisfied enough. When the bell range Clary couldn't have been more relieved, but as Clary neared her next class she started to feel anxious and her feeling of dread kept growing.

After taking a deep breath, Clary gripped her bag a little tighter and entered the science room. Keeping her head down, she quickly made her way to her seat and sat down. She didn't have to look to know that Jace was already there, Clary could practically _feel_ his stare on her. When Clary could no longer bare his laser-like gaze she attempted to calm her anxiety and allowed her green eyes to meet Jace's golden ones.

Even though Jace's face was like a stone, Clary could still tell that he was scrutinizing her face, searching for any trace of discolored skin. He scrunched his eyes for a second before relaxing a little.

Clary's stomach was tying itself in knots.

Slowly, Jace leaned down toward her and stopped when his lips where close to her ear.

"I'm not going to ask you anything right now, nor will I ask at lunch, but I _will_ discuss what happened with you before we leave school. Magnus and I both want an explanation." Jace's voice was stern, yet soft at the same time. He wasn't threatening at all; he just wanted to get his point across that he expected an explanation before Clary went home.

Not knowing what to say, or even trusting her voice, Clary simply nodded.

"Good." Jace leaned back in his seat. Clary opened her mouth, but at that moment class started and Clary was forced to return her attention to the front of the classroom.

The rest of Clary's day was fairly uneventful. Jace, true to his word, didn't bring up a topic dealing with anything remotely close to anything that had to do with yesterday. Magnus, even, hadn't harassed her about not telling him what had happened last night. But the closer it got to the end of the day, the closer Clary was to having to explain everything to Jace and telling Magnus the newest occurrence of her father's bad mood.

So, needless to say, when the final bell rang at the end of art, Clary really just wanted to run and hide, maybe even pull an ostrich and bury her head in the sand.

"Clary." Magnus's voice came from behind her, causing Clary to jump a little.

"I know." Clary sighed and without turning around and walked out of class and towards Jace's locker. She had already packed her homework in her bag because even though she didn't want to have this discussion, the sooner it was over the better. The closer Clary got to Jace's locker the more nervous she got.

"Oomph," Magnus groaned as he ran into Clary when she froze.

"Sorry," Clary's voice was a little stiff. Magnus put his hand on Clary's shoulder reassuringly and she tried her hardest to force a small smile, but in all honesty it probably looked more like a grimace.

Taking a deep breath, Clary continued walking towards Jace's locker. Clary stopped beside it just as Jace was closing it.

"Come on," Magnus said as he grabbed Clary's wrist and nodded his head, motioning for Jace to follow. Jace let out a humph sound but followed anyways. Clary didn't take in any of the surroundings around her, she merely allowed Magnus to lead her to wherever he wanted them to have this conversation. In fact, Clary didn't even notice that they were behind the bleachers of the football field until Magnus called her name.

"Sorry," Clary apologized meekly rubbing her hands up and down her arms. After a few moments of silence with both boys looking at her expectantly, she took a deep breath and set her resolve.

"Look, how about I answer Magnus's questions first and then I get to you, Jace." Clary said, looking at each boy. Jace didn't look too thrilled but her nodded along with Magnus in agreement.

"Alright then, tell me what happened yesterday." Magnus responded. Jace gave him a look but Magnus seemed to wave it off.

"Well, my father was having one of his bad days and what usually happened when he had a bad day happened." Clary responded cryptically. She knew Magnus wanted details, but she didn't know if she could go into detail of what had happened. In fact, she didn't want to tell the two boys looking at her so worried right now the step by step events that had happened the night before.  
Magnus all but rolled his eyes. "Cut the crap, Clary. Just tell me what happened." His yellow-green eyes flashing with irritation.

"I have a slightly sprained wrist, a burned palm, my right side is covered in bruises and there is a small gash on my side. There are also bruises on my jawline. Happy?" Clary spat out. "But on the bright side my left side is perfectly functional."

"Oh, don't get sarcastic with me right now. None of this is funny. In fact, this is quite serious." Magnus growled. Clary knew he wasn't mad at her, knew he was mad at the situation and at her father, and she knew that he would never hurt her, but in the end it didn't matter how much she knew or trusted her best friend because she couldn't help but flinch a little at the venom in his voice.

Seeing her reaction, Magnus's face paled a little and Clary instantly felt guilt whelm up within her stomach. "Can't you see how bad this is? How bad it could get?" Magnus's voice was softer.

Clary gave him a weak smile and grabbed his hand and squeezed is slightly, partly to show him she wasn't afraid of him and partly to just give herself comfort.

"You worry too much."

"Please."

Clary jumped at the sound of Jace's voice. Turning to look at him she saw that his had a scowl on his face and that his hands were balled into fists at his sides.

"Jace," Magnus warned but didn't get any farther because Jace interrupted him first.

"No, you just said how this was serious and now she is joking about it."

Magnus sighed at Jace's tone.

"Show me." Jace demanded, ignoring Magnus's disapproval.

"What?" Clary asked shocked.

"You heard me, show me what your dear old dad did." Jace's eyes were hard.

Clary gulped and look at Jace wide eyed.

"Jace." Magnus scorned, his voice dripping with disapproval.

"Oh for the love, it's not like I am asking her to take her clothes off for me. I just want to see what that jerk did to her."

Magnus and Jace continued to argue for a few more minutes before Clary could manage to clear her head enough to wrap around what Jace had just asked her, let alone to respond.

"Stop." Clary voiced softly. Either they didn't hear her or they ignored her because the two boys kept arguing.

"I said stop." Clary nearly shouted. This time she managed to grab their attention and silence fell between them.

"Why?" Clary asked, looking Jace strait in the eyes.

"What?" Jace's eyebrows scrounged up in confusion.

"Why do you want me to show you?"

"Because, hearing it and seeing it are always two very different things, that and I want to see how much you are playing down your injuries."

Clary and Jace looked each other in the eyes for a long time, almost as if they were challenging the other to back down and look away, but they both held their ground.

"Fine." Clary said as she pulled her shirt off tentatively. She then shimmied her jean shorts down a little on her hips and pulled the side of her spaghetti tank top up enough to bare her stomach, and with it the evidence of her father's newest tirade.

She heard Jace's sharp intake of breath before she saw his reaction. Looking up, she saw that Jace's face had gone pale but there was still rage in his golden eyes and they blazed like a fire. Pulling her shirt back down she glanced as Magnus and saw that he looked slightly sick and sad, though there was anger in his rigid stance as well.

"It's not as bad as it looks." Clary mumbled.

"Not as bad as it looks? You have got to be kidding me." Jace's face was still pale but he seemed to have gained back most of his composer.

"I've had worse." Clary knew the instant the words left her mouth that it was the wrong thing to say.

"What?" Jace roared. That was what it sounded like to Clary anyways, like a lion roaring.

"Calm down, Jace." Magnus said, staying calm, much to Clary's appreciation.

"Calm down. You want me to calm down? How are you not shocked, or even angry about this?"

"I am mad, but Clary's right and there isn't anything you can do over spilled milk."

"Oh, don't give me some ridiculous metaphor."

"Idiom." Clary corrected.

Jace gave her a look.

"Well it is." She mumbled.

"Simile, metaphor, idiom, I do not care what it is. All I care about is the fact that you don't even seem to care that your entire right side is pretty much one giant bruise."

"It's not that bad and you can stop exaggerating." Clary said, exasperated. This was both going how she expected and at the same time completely different. She knew Jace would be mad but she didn't expect him to keep his somewhat snarky devil-may-care attitude at the same time.

"Let me guess, that burn was one of your father's so called _tirades_. Along with that cut that was on your arm."

Clary stayed stone faced, even though she wanted to react and ask how he knew about the cut, because she had never said anything about it.

"It wasn't that bad." Clary repeated.

"Not that bad!"

"Jace." Magnus reprimanded the golden haired boy in a somewhat monotone voice.

Jace let out a huff of breathe and glared at Magnus, but he did cross his arms over his chest and didn't say anything more.

"Look, Clare," Magnus stated softly, using her old nickname from when they were younger. "I know you are tough and can take care of yourself." Jace snorted at this, but Magnus ignored him and kept talking. "I also know that you are extremely loyal and don't want to turn your dad in, but we have to find out a way to get him help. That's what you want isn't it?"

Clary nodded. She wanted that more than anything. If her dad could get help and stop drinking and find better ways to deal with his emotions things would get better, and not just the anger, but the sadness and helplessness as well. Valentine had never said a thing to Clary about his feelings, but she knew her father enough to know that he did feel helpless. She knew that deep down inside her father partly blamed himself for what had happened to their family even though it wasn't his fault at all. He had been working for Pete's sakes, there was nothing he could have done, and even if he had been home there was still nothing that could have been done. Clary also knew that her father hated himself a little for being so weak and allowing himself to take comfort in alcohol and not being able to stop his anger and taking it out on her. She saw the look in his eyes when he was just buzzed enough that after he pushed her around a little he instantly turned white and apologetic. She felt the tension the morning after when her father was sober and could remember what had happened the evening before and how he wanted to say sorry but was too afraid too, because the instant he did it made it all real and he didn't want it to be. Clary knew that her father was a good man and that he was sick and just needed help. It was just convincing him that there was no shame in getting help that was the tricky part.

"Good. " Magnus nodded.

Jace mumbled something under his breath, but Clary couldn't make any of it out, and this caused Magnus to look over his shoulder and glare, again, at the angry teen.

"What else do you want, Jace?" Clary asked impatiently. Jace was starting to get on her nerves, but she knew that he meant well. It didn't help her to not get any more irritated at him though.

"How long?" Jace demanded more than asked.

"About two years now I guess."

"Two years of _this_?" Jace looked a little sick, enraged, and sad all at the same time.

"It wasn't that bad in the beginning, just a slap or a push and my father would instantly apologize and it only happened once a month at the most if not longer. Then things just kept getting worse and my dad started drinking more and so he just got meaner." Clary shrugged. Yes, she knew it wasn't right but it also wasn't as bad as it could be. When the abuse had begun Clary had done some pretty extensive research and some of the things that people had to live through . . . it was enough to make Clary shutter just thinking about it. Thankfully, neither of the boys seemed to notice.

"It doesn't make it right, Clary." Jace reprimanded.

"I know it doesn't make it right, Jace." Clary practically shouted at him. "I know that my father needs help and that what he is doing it wrong, but I don't know how to convince him to get help yet and things aren't nearly as bad as they could be."

"You are being abused, how much worse can things get before you do something, Clary?" Jace bellowed. "How long are you going to be your father's punching bag?"

Clary could feel her face heat up not only in rage but in indignation as well. How dare Jace talk to her like that. He didn't have the right to talk down to her, as if she didn't know how serious all of this was. She knew. Clary knew that just because things weren't that bad right now didn't mean her father wouldn't progressively keep getting worse at a much faster pace. But she also knew that if she turned him in she would be taken away and he was the only family she had and she was his. There was no way she was going to let the state separate them, not when they were all that remained of the Morgensterns.

"Don't patronize me." Clary bit out. "You think I don't know how serious things are? I do, trust me, I am the one living through it, you, jerk. I also know that there are worse things that could happen to me, things I don't even want to think about. So, until I think my life is in actual danger I am not turning my dad in. I will find a way to get him help, but I will not turn him in. And if you say anything I will deny it and if it comes down to it I will lie."

Jace stared at Clary and Clary stared back, daring him to be the first one to look away. Clary was still mad, but not nearly as much. Finally, after what seemed like hours, Jace sighed and ran his hands through his hair roughly.

"Fine. Have it your way."

Clary continued to just stare at Jace for a few more moments before she nodded her head. "Thank you."

"Well, now that you two are done. What about tomorrow?"

Clary had almost forgotten all about Magnus and at the sound of his voice she shot her head in his direction. It took a few seconds before his word fully sunk in, but once they did Clary's face turned white and her body grew a little cold. Fighting to keep the pain off her face and ignoring the aching in her chest she forced her lips to curve up just enough to be a ghost of a smile.

"What about tomorrow?" Jace asked, scrounging his brows up in curiosity.

"Nothing." Clary said quickly as she shot a glance at Jace and sighed. Looking back at, Magnus she just stood there and gazed at him for a moment as she tried to gather her thoughts.

"Well?"

"Nothing." Clary repeated. "There isn't any reason to worry about tomorrow."

"Clary," Magnus started but Clary cut him off with a raise of her hand.

"No, Mags, it will be fine."

Reluctantly Magnus nodded his head. "Fine."

"Is that it?" Clary glanced at her watch.

"Yes." Magnus said.

"Good. I'll see you guys later." Clary replied and then took off for home so she could try to get dinner finished before her father got home. It shouldn't be a totally awful day, it never was. Tomorrow however would most likely be a completely different story.

**Finished! I am so sorry that this took so long, I had planned on posting it before the 4****th**** of July but this chapter just didn't want to be written and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't think of anything. But here you are and I hope it was worth the wait. I admit it isn't much, but it's something. I also promise that in the next chapter a few more questions will be answered and I will try to have it written and posted as soon as I can. I just started college so I make no promises it will be a speedy update, but I will write every chance I get. Love you guys!**


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